A WOMAN who has been married to a British man for 27 years has been detained in Dungavel Immigration Centre in Scotland prior to deportation, it was revealed yesterday.

Irene Clennell, who lives with her husband in County Durham, is originally from Singapore. She received indefinitely leave to remain in Britain after her marriage.

However, periods spent back in Singapore caring for elderly parents have invalidated her right to British residency, according to immigration officials.

Ms Clennell said she had made repeated applications for permission to live with her husband, but that the Home Office rejected them.

She said: “The kids are born here. My husband is from the country. I just want to be with my family.”

Ms Clennell said her husband was in poor health and she has become his principal carer.

Migrant Voice director Nazek Ramadan said the case was “yet another example of how arbitrary policies tear apart families and ruin lives.

“Most people in Britain will recognise the need for a compassionate system flexible enough to take family life into account.

“We urge the Home Office not to break up a family that have made this country their home for decades.”

The Home Office spokesman said it did not routinely comment on individual cases.

The Dungavel detention centre where Ms Clennell is detained will now remain open after plans to build a replacement unit near Glasgow Airport were rejected.

Dungavel has been branded ”racist and inhumane” and there have been numerous protests in recent years over its treatment of detainees and the length of some detentions.

Detention Action director Jerome Phelps said the decision meant that “migrants will continue to be detained indefinitely without time limit in Scotland, and the government is no nearer to fulfilling its promise to reduce the lengths of time that migrants are detained.”

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith called for an end to detention and said the closure could have been “the first step towards the creation of a better and more humane approach to asylum and we will continue to campaign for its closure and the fair redeployment of workers in the centre.”

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