A 41-year-old immigrant British resident, Sudharsan Ithayachandran, has died after being wrongly deported by the UK Home Office back to his native country, Sri Lanka.
Ithayachandran was deported back to Sri Lanka on December 24, 2019, after admitting to working illegally at Tesco and using false documents, is married to Subatra Sudharsan, 41, who is deaf.
The couple has two British-born children, Priyan, 9, and Priyanka, 8. The family was torn apart after he was deported.
However, in a November 2023 immigration tribunal ruling, Ithayachandran’s appeal was successful.
Judge Bonavero upheld the appeal, arguing that Ithayachandran had a right to family life in the UK with his wife and children.
Despite the ruling, the Home Office is accused of delaying the processing of Ithayachandran’s visa to return to his family in the UK for several months, despite not appealing against the ruling.
Then the family’s lawyer, Naga Kandiah, filed a judicial review against the Home Office for the delay.
The Home Office, however, issued an apology letter, blamed the delay on backlogs, and started processing the visa earlier this month.
It also said that the delay was not the fault of officials.
However, on Sunday, May 19, Ithayachandran was found collapsed at his Sri Lankan home and died after being taken to the hospital.
Sepsis is believed to be the cause of his death. His family claimed he was in deep depression in Sri Lanka as a result of being separated from his children for nearly half of their lives, and that he was not eating or caring for himself properly.
According to the Guardian UK, Ithayachandran’s mother-in-law, Yasadora Nagendra, 60, described him as “the pillar of the family.”
“I don’t know how the family is ever going to get over this. When he was here, he looked after everybody. He was such a kind and supportive man. Nobody can replace him. I believe that if the Home Office had not deported him, he would still be alive today. We blame them for his death,” Nagendra added.
“He was treated in a very unfair way by the Home Office. He was so depressed that even after he won his case last November, the Home Office delayed making arrangements for his return to the UK. He couldn’t understand why he still had to wait to come back to his family.”
The family lawyer, Kandiah, said: “The tribunal accepted our client had a genuine and subsisting relationship with his children and that living without them would be ‘unduly harsh.’ He had spent years battling with the Home Office to simply rejoin his family. He finally won his case but died before he could do this.”
A Home Office spokesperson defended their procedures, stating that all deportations are decided on a case-by-case basis.
They added that the responsibility for applying for re-entry falls on the individual after a successful appeal.
“All deportation orders are considered on a case-by-case basis, based on the evidence provided,”
“Once an appeal has been allowed against the refusal to revoke a deportation order, the responsibility of applying for entry clearance to the UK lies with the individual and their representatives.”
