A man who remains stuck in Turkey a year after he was barred from returning to the UK with his British son has applied for a judicial review of the Home Office’s handling of his case.
Siyabonga Twala has been in limbo in Ankara ever since he was blocked from boarding a flight back to Manchester last December. His son, Mason, nine, and his parents and siblings had to return home without him.
Twala thought the matter would be resolved within days but a year on, he is still stranded. He said he was unable to sleep and was facing Christmas alone in a bedsit in Ankara, where he had no friends or family. “It’s just the loneliness of it,” Twala added.
“It’s not a way to treat someone, to expect them to get ripped out from what they’re used to, and then act as if that person didn’t have a life in that country … I just think the whole thing is a sham and a way for [the Home Office] to look tough,” he said.
Twala, 34, was in transit on his way back from a holiday to South Africa with his family when he was prevented from boarding a flight home at Istanbul airport. The trip was the first time he had returned to the country of his birth since his family relocated from Durban to Chester when he was 15.
Twala, whose younger brother is British, had residency in the UK having grown up in Chester but had not yet applied for citizenship. He is being barred because of a 2018 conviction for possession of cannabis with intent to supply.
“I did something wrong, but it shouldn’t be a situation where I have to fight for my life because of one mistake,” Twala said.
The former home secretary, Suella Braverman, personally intervened in his case in July arguing he should be barred on the basis of “serious criminality” because of the offence.
“I just thought this whole thing would be sorted really quickly,” Twala said. “I can’t go back to South Africa because all my family is in the UK.”
Twala’s judicial review application argues the Home Office wrongly interpreted the law in excluding him from the country using a policy designed for terrorists and those who present a serious threat to public safety. It also makes the case that its approach is contrary to his legal right to a family life.
In its initial response, the Home Office has argued that Twala’s human rights no longer apply as he is in Turkey and outside the jurisdiction of the European court. He is now waiting for a decision on whether his case will be heard.
Twala’s lawyer, Nicholas Hughes, said the Home Office’s position was not legal. He added: “It’s been almost 12 months since Siyabonga was forcibly separated from his family. At the heart of this is a young British child, who will be without his father at Christmas as a result of the home secretary’s callous indifference.
“There have been many opportunities for the home secretary to do the right thing, but instead they have acted outside of the law in an attempt to look tough on immigration, no matter the cost. It is hoped that the courts will be able to reunite this family in accordance with the law.”
Twala had not offended before or since and served four months of a nine-month sentence – lower than the 12-month threshold that triggers automatic deportation. After prison he retrained as a lorry driver and dedicated himself to being there for Mason, who lived with him three days a week.
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Twala said he spoke regularly to Mason on the phone and tried to keep conversation light, sticking to safe topics like school, jokes and football – but it always returned to the question of when he would come back. “He just wants me home,” he said.
Twala said that the summer months after Braverman’s intervention were particularly tough. “I was struggling really badly with my mental health at that point. I really wasn’t in a good place.”
Mason came out to visit him for the first time in September, which boosted Twala’s resolve. “That was something I was so desperate for and when I finally got to see him I knew what I was fighting for,” he said.
The visit raised Mason’s spirits too, but Twala said it was shortlived. “My parents saw a big change in him … he was so happy and so excited,” he said, until the last day when the boy went “really quiet”. Twala said: “It’s not just me now that’s being affected, it’s my child.”
Twala has been subsisting on handouts from family and donations from well-wishers. Jane Ashley, 48, a life coach from Swansea, raised more than £4,000 online after reading about his case in the Guardian in March and speaks to him regularly. She said she was “really shocked” by the cruelty of his treatment and wanted to help.
“There are no winners here,” she said. “Obviously, he’s losing his son in particular. But economically, if you’re not even looking at it from a moral or compassionate perspective, the UK government’s missing out on a qualified HGV driver who was paying taxes and contributing to society. And in the long term his son is going to struggle with having his dad ripped away from his life. So it just struck me as being incredibly cruel and unnecessary.”
A Home Office spokesperson said they did not comment on individual cases.
For Twala, a new year cannot come soon enough. “This whole December has been awful because it’s a time when people should be together,” he said. “I’m just trying to let the month pass as fast as possible.”
