Family could be split as mother is told 'we don't want you in this country'

Mrs Jeffery, 29, was given the shock news in a letter this week from the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate.

The letter tells Mrs Jeffery she has no right of appeal, adding: "You must leave as soon as possible."

The decision is all the more devastating for Mrs Jeffery and her husband Peter Edney, 39, because their four-year-old daughter, Jennifer, has been diagnosed with a hole-in-the-heart which will require major surgery.

Speaking at the couple's Gladstone Terrace home yesterday (Wednesday), Mr Edney, a delivery driver for an electrical components company, said: "We have fought for 18 months to get to the bottom of Jennifer's health problems, when doctors kept saying there was nothing wrong with her. Now we have to fight to keep my wife in this country.

"What do I say to our children when they are crying their eyes out because they want their mum, but she has been taken away? How can I look after them on my own? Jennifer will need her mum more than ever if she has to go into hospital.

"It's the most horrible thing that could happen."

Mrs Jeffery came to the UK with her husband, Jennifer and their three-year-old son, Jimmy, in the spring of 2005, after obtaining a two-year visa.

No mention was made then of requirements for language or understanding of English culture to be met, but she began attending English lessons at the Learning Shop in Beach Road, Littlehampton, in February. She had already studied the language in Thailand, too.

Soon afterwards, Mr Edney contacted officials to have the visa renewed, and they said his wife would have to meet the new language and cultural understanding standards which had been introduced in the meantime.

"It's ridiculous. We all speak English in this house. No other language is spoken. Her language is getting better all the time '” there is no one from her culture in Wick for her to talk to, she has to speak English. She has been studying for her level 1 test, but the term is finished now, so she was going to take it next term. Then this happened," added Mr Edney.

Mrs Jeffery told the Gazette: "I am doing my best to learn English, from the television, from my husband. I want to learn and become part of the community.

"I feel so sad about this decision. I want to be with my family. I don't want to have to go."

Mr Edney is raising the case with Littlehampton's MP Nick Gibb and has also written to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

He met his wife on holiday in Thailand more than six years ago. "She was singing in a bar. She was so lively. We got to know each other, and I started flying out there to see her. We were very much in love '” we still are '” so I went to live there for three years and we had our two children. We are very happy together."

The Immigration and Nationality Directorate was unable to comment on the case before the Gazette went to press. Its letter to Mrs Jeffery states: "You have no right to stay in the United Kingdom, so are liable to be removed."

It adds that if she does not leave voluntarily, she could be prosecuted under the Immigration Act 1971, with a maximum fine of #2,500 and/or up to six months imprisonment, as well as removal from the UK to Thailand.

"My wife could be sent to Thailand tomorrow," said Mr Edney. "I don't know when they are going to come. We are waiting for the knock on the door."