Last-ditch legal bid to stop deportation from UK of seriously ill man

A last-minute legal challenge has been lodged with the Home Office to prevent the removal of a man whose life will be at risk if he flies, according to an expert medical report seen by the Guardian.

The Home Office told the Balachandran family that Sangarapillai Balachandran, 60, a Sri Lankan Tamil with Australian citizenship, would be flown to Australia with his wife and three children on a Qatar Airways flight at 9.30pm on Monday with four medics on board. Shortly after 4pm, the family was taken by ambulance from a hotel near the airport where the Home Office is accommodating them.

Balachandran has had three increasingly serious strokes over six years. He says these occurred during periods of stress in his dealings with the Home Office over his family’s immigration case.

He takes medication for high blood pressure and fears he could die on the flight. When his blood pressure was taken a few days ago to assess his fitness to fly it was 160/105 – normal blood pressure range from 120/80 to 140/90.

After he arrived at the airport on Monday afternoon his blood pressure had climbed to 169/113, according to a reading taken by paramedics. He appeared disoriented and unwell as the family waited to board the flight.

A medical report conducted on Sunday by a psychiatrist expert in the connection between stroke and stress at the request of the family’s solicitor, Arun Gananathan of Birnberg Peirce solicitors, states: “In my opinion he is at very high risk of further CVAs (strokes) and possible life-threatening consequences because of high blood pressure due to high levels of stress.”

He said Balachandran’s condition was likely to worsen as the Home Office removal drew closer and added that he was also at risk of “life-threatening brain damage”, was suffering from severe depression and was suicidal. Legal submissions lodged under provisions of the Human Rights Act by the solicitor stated that removal would give rise to “significantly increased risk of death”.

The family has twice agreed to return to Australia in the last year but both times were unable to go because Balachandran was unfit to fly. The most recent was in February, when he was taken off the plane because he became unwell and after the family told the flight crew about the three strokes. He was taken to hospital and treated overnight to lower his blood pressure.

A petition to try to prevent the family from being removed, launched by friends and supporters, has attracted several thousand signatures.

Balachandran’s son, Pranavan, 23, said: “Monday is just falling off a cliff for all of us.” His daughter Sinthuja, 28, added: “It is deeply disturbing that in order to play to a certain demographic and get us removed from the UK the Home Office is willing to put our dad’s life at risk.”

Balachandran is a highly specialised engineer with expertise in water purification systems. He was headhunted by a British company in 2007 to come and work for it because there was a shortage of civil engineers with his particular skills at the time. His family had moved from Sri Lanka to Australia a decade before as part of a migrant recruitment programme and all had been granted citizenship there.

His family no longer has permission to work since his work visa expired and the Home Office refused them indefinite leave to remain.

Balachandran’s oldest daughter, Karthika, 30, has learning disabilities and is a voluntary administrator at St George’s hospital, where she has worked for the past seven years.

His youngest daughter, Sinthuja, 28, gained a first in economics at Queen Mary University and passed the civil service fast-stream exams. She was accepted for a job in the civil service dependent on resolving her immigration status.

Her brother was accepted to do a degree in computer science at her alma mater but was unable to take up the place because of his immigration status.

The family’s immigration problems started when they applied for leave to remain in 2012. They were refused but subsequently won an appeal in July 2013, when the judge ordered the Home Office to reconsider the case. Officials then failed to write to the family for almost a year.

The family spent a night sleeping at a Heathrow terminal but realised that with the father’s health problems it was not a sustainable solution. In desperation they approached the Home Office and asked to be locked up in detention as an alternative to being on the streets.

“The Home Office told us that our father was too unwell to be detained and agreed to put us up in a budget hotel next to the detention centre on condition that we signed papers to return voluntarily to Australia on Monday evening,” said Sinthuja. “We felt we had no choice but to sign as we cannot survive on the streets. But if we get on the plane our father might die.”

The family said the Home Office had informed them they would be unable to return precious documents the family had handed over including birth certificates, the parents’ marriage certificate, a university degree graduation certificate and university offer letters.

On Friday, the Home Office said: “The Balachandran family have exhausted their leave to remain status in the UK and have agreed to return to Australia voluntarily.” It has been approached for further comment.

Ed Davey, the family’s constituency MP, has written to the Home Office several times about the case. He said: “The new medical evidence backs up what we and the family have been saying all along. It would be highly risky for this gentleman to be flying to Australia in his current state of health.”