A SCOTS MP has written to the Home Office questioning the removal directions it put in place for an Argentine woman – married to a Scot – who was detained when they arrived in Glasgow on their way to Australia.
Cyntia Lencinas and her husband Charly Garcia arrived on Friday after flying from Uruguay via Brazil and New York.
Garcia, 44, had personal matters to take care of before the couple headed to Australia, and estimated that they would be in Scotland for “at most a month”.
However, his 33-year-old wife was refused entry and was locked up in the Dungavel detention centre with the threat of being deported – not to her home country but 1400 miles away to Brazil – on Monday.
That order was put on hold after intervention by the couple’s lawyer Usman Aslam, Stuart McDonald, the SNP’s immigration spokesperson at Westminster and The National.
READ MORE: Wife passing through UK for Australia trip sent to Dungavel
In a letter to the Home Office, McDonald wrote: “Further to my email from yesterday, I wanted to query the removal directions.
“If I understand correctly, these are set for Sao Paulo. Ms Lencinas is from Argentina. Can I have urgent clarification as to where the Home Office are seeking to remove her to, and why?
“All the remaining points stand. The clear evidence is that Ms Lencinas is intending to accompany her husband to Australia – they have visas and confirmed employment.
“Can you explain why she is still apparently being held in Dungavel and why she was detained in the first place?
“In the absence of any explanation, this does seem an extraordinary and utterly outrageous episode. I look forward to hearing from you urgently.”
Garcia said he had not lived in the UK since 1994, and had lived and worked in Barcelona, South America and Australia.
The couple have been together for seven years and got married earlier this year. He had even offered to immediately buy flights out of the country to secure his wife’s release.
Aslam said Lencinas did not even need to apply for a visa, as Argentina is among the visa waiver countries. All she should have had to do was show proof on arrival that she was only visiting Scotland to see her in-laws.
He said yesterday: “We have written to the Home Office again today raising our concerns about this case.
“We have also questioned the validity of the removal papers as they appear to show that Cyntia will be sent to Brazil, however she is from Argentina.
“Our office has been working with Stuart McDonald MP today as we have yet to receive a response from the Home Office.
“We are trying to avoid court action and, in our view what would be an unnecessary use of court time for a matter that should can be easily resolved today.”
A Home Office spokesperson called The National on Monday evening, and also expressed surprise at their own department’s choice of removal destination.
“Why’s she being removed to Sao Paulo?” they asked. “Isn’t she from Argentina?”
Why indeed.
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