A Birmingham man says that efforts by the Government to stop him bringing his wife of five years and their son to Britain are akin to ‘child abuse’.
Mohammed Fiaz, who lives with his five children from his first marriage in the King’s Heath area of the city, has been involved in a legal battle to secure a UK visa for his wife and youngest child for the last three years.
Following his divorce in 2010, he married his second wife in Pakistan later that year. The couple’s son is now four. But he has not seen either of them in more than a year due to the ongoing legal difficulties he is facing in bringing them both to Britain to live with him.
Mr Fiaz was initially given approval by an immigration judge for his wife and son to join him in Birmingham. However, the Home Office was successful in appealing against the decision.
Its legal representative claimed that when originally agreeing to allow the family to be reunited, there may have been some confusion about Mr Fiaz’s domestic arrangements.
Mr Fiaz has subsequently launched his own appeal against the Government with the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber in Birmingham.
He told the Birmingham Mail: “I have not seen my wife and our son for 15 months. The block on my son joining his brothers and sisters in Kings Heath is like some kind of child abuse. My wife and son should not be prevented from joining us.”
Mr Fiaz is employed as a warehouse worker but due to his family responsibilities of looking after the five children from his first marriage, he said he was unable to work permanently.
The Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber said that it would make a decision at a later date after looking at further evidence.