“It will be nice to have a rest at last,” said Comfort Olufunmilayo Olawo, who has spent the last 50 years commuting between the UK and Nigeria.
After racking up around 300,000 air miles and spending thousands of pounds on flights and visa fees, the 82-year-old Windrush-generation grandmother who originally settled in the UK almost 60 years ago has finally been granted permission to stay here.
Olawo first arrived in the UK in 1966 and in December of that year married Emmanuel Layiwola Olawo, a quantity surveyor, at a ceremony in Islington, north London. Both were granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK. She had several jobs in London, including one at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers where she worked as a typist.
“I was a very good typist and I loved my job,” she said.
Comfort Olufunmilayo Olawo’s wedding in Islington in December 1966.
The couple had two children who were born in London, but when she became pregnant with their third child she decided to return to Nigeria to give birth so that she could get support from her extended family there. She took the older two children with her and planned to return to London with them after the birth. But by the time she was ready to return permanently to London to rejoin her husband, more than two years had passed.
According to the immigration rules, anyone who has indefinite leave to remain but is out of the UK for more than two years loses their right to remain.
The only legal option available to her from that point onwards was to apply for an annual six-month visitor visa every year and commute between her husband in London and her extended family in Nigeria. She abided by these immigration rules scrupulously and did not overstay her visitor visas.
Almost all of her family, which includes five children and 10 grandchildren, live in the UK.
Comfort Olufunmilayo Olawo and her daughter June Alawode in their garden in Oldham. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian
The previous government introduced a returning resident visa, for which her lawyer successfully applie, finally offering a legal alternative to the increasingly exhausting annual commute. At the age of 82 she no longer needs to travel between continents every six months.
“My children were getting worried that I was too old to go back and forth, back and forth all the time. I’ve spent 50 years running up and down between here and Nigeria. I belong to the UK and at last I have peace,” she said.
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Olawo’s daughter June Alawode welcomed the Home Office’s decision to grant her mother indefinite leave to remain for a second time.
“This is very good news. It has not been easy for my mum to go backwards and forwards between here and Nigeria for 50 years. Getting the visa and air ticket every year was challenging. My mum is an amazing person but all of this has taken a toll on her. Dad died three years ago. Now it’s time for my mum to relax and enjoy the rest of her days. As children we went backwards and forwards to Nigeria with my mum. My childhood was between two countries and I just had to accept that.”
Naga Kandiah, of MTC Solicitors, representing Olawo, said: “Our client, now 82, has finally been granted permanent settlement in the UK and reunited with her British-born children after more than 50 years of separation caused by inflexible immigration rules and administrative failure.”
Kandiah added: “Now finally settled, her story highlights the enduring harm caused by historical immigration injustice and the need for a more humane system.”
