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Grandmother who has been married to Briton for 27-years is deported to Singapore with just £12 in her pocket

A grandmother who has been married for 27 years to a British man has been forcibly deported to Singapore with just the clothes on her back and £12 in her pocket.

Irene Clennell, 53, who has lived most of her life in Ouston, near Chester-le-Street in County Durham, said she has no idea what she will do when she lands in South East Asia, because she has nowhere to stay.

The couple have two sons, aged 26 and 24, and a  one-year-old granddaughter.

Speaking from the aircraft, she told Buzzfeed, she had not even been given chance to say goodbye to her loved ones.

She said: “I don’t know what I’ll do when I land. I called my sister (in Singapore) and she said she can’t put me up, so I just don’t know.  

“How can I stay anywhere? I don’t have a wallet with me, I’ve got about £12 in my pocket. I don’t even have my clothes, they’re at home. I just have what they took from the detention centre.”

Her husband, John, 53, accused the immigration authorities of snatching her away from her family.

He said: "We went up to see her on Friday at the detention centre and she was in good spirits.

"We have been fighting all along to get bail for her so that she could come home while it was sorted out.  

"To us it seemed like red tape that just needed to be cut through, we thought she'd be coming home and so did Irene.

"The idea that they would actually go through with his and send her to Singapore just seemed so ridiculous that it couldn't happen. But suddenly it has.

"On Sunday morning I got a call from Irene to say they had come for her and she was being transferred to the airport, she didn't say which one.

"They said they were forcing her to get on the flight and she was absolutely distraught. The realisation this was actually happening hit us both at the same time.

Mrs Clennell, was told she had infringed immigration rules when she returned to Singapore to care for her cancer stricken parents, who have both now died.

She had been placed in a detention centre in Glasgow after being arrested during what she thought was a routine immigration interview in Middlesbrough last month.

On Sunday she was placed on a flight to Singapore with just £12 in her pocket.

Her sister-in-law, Angela Clennell, said the family had been unable to intervene because the flight took place on a Sunday.

"I made several attempts to ring immigration and solicitors but nowhere was open. They just came and removed her without any prior warning. It's unbelievable. It is heart-breaking for all of us to see her go,” she said.

Mrs Clennell was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK due to her marriage to John as far back as 1992.

However when her parents became ill she and her husband went to live in Singapore to care for them, returning in 1998 after they had both passed away.

She was then forced to re-apply for indefinite leave to remain believing it had been granted in October 2008.

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