The ballet shoe is on the shelf in 15-year-old Valentina’s room. This week she has performed with the culture school in the park at Åkra. On Tuesday, she came up in Spanish in the oral exam. Tomorrow she will defend herself before the censor. At the weekend, she travels to Gol on a class trip with her friends in the 10th grade. And next Friday, when the last day of school at the junior high school is over, she goes to Trondheim to represent Rogaland in the Youth Culture Show with a dance number she has made herself. When she comes home, she is thrown out of Norway. 15-year-old Valentina dreams of working in culture when she grows up. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news – It is difficult to focus on everything I have to do when I have to think that I might be thrown out, she says and adds: – I thought Norway was a place where everyone could be involved, help and work . But now I’ve learned that it’s not quite like that. Valentina dances ballet at Kulturskulen. In the autumn, the plan is to start at Skeisvang. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news Valentina lives in Skudeneshavn with her mother Maria Robela Duarte De Oliveira and stepfather Kay Garred. She has daughter Valentina from a previous relationship. Two years ago they moved to Norway. Now the family is in despair. Open hotel in Brazil Kay Garred and Maria Robela Duarte De Oliveira met in Brazil in 2016. Garred was in the country to set up a property outside the city of Natal. The property was to become a hotel. In 2017, they got married in Haugesund. Valentina was then nine years old. – I promised that I would take care of them until death do us part, he says. After the wedding, they returned to Brazil and continued to work on the hotel project. The hotel opened in November 2019, but it didn’t take long before the pandemic made it difficult to operate. The schools closed, the guests stayed away. Garred traveled home to Norway in 2020. But due to the pandemic, he was not allowed to take his family with him. Only a year later did the family follow. First on a tourist visa, then they applied for family reunification in August 2021. The refusal from UDI came in November of the same year. UDI wrote that Garred lit too little. The so-called maintenance requirement was not met. At the time the refusal came, Garred had recently been granted disability benefits. But this was NOK 6,356 below the limit in the maintenance requirement. In annual income. NOK 529 per month. And because he does not meet the requirement for future income, the directorate also sets requirements for past income. The family say they are happy in Skudeneshavn. His wife Maria wants to work, but she can’t until she has been granted residence. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news This is much lower than the requirement seen by UDI, because he was in Brazil during this period. – Those crowns say nothing about my dependents, says Garred. The family complained via a lawyer, but were again refused on Christmas Eve in 2022. The refusal stated that the family had to be out by 31 December and that the case had been forwarded to UNE. At the beginning of June this year, the rejection finally came from UNE. Maria and Valentina are in Norway illegally. They must leave as soon as possible. If not, the police can arrest them and transport them out of the country. – This affects only the weakest. I don’t think this law was made for me, but it affects me because I earn NOK 500 too little a month, he says. The family is waiting to enter the immigration office meeting. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news Requirement for sustenance The head of unit at UNE, Ingun Marie Halle, tells news that in order to get a license there is a requirement for sustenance. She explains that the purpose of the maintenance requirement, among other things, is to ensure that the person who receives a residence permit is supported and does not need public benefits. – If a reference person cannot work due to a health problem, the legislature has decided that disability benefits of a certain amount can fulfill the maintenance requirement. This amount has not been met in this case. Read the entire response from UNE at the bottom of the case. The police knocked on Monday this week, the police came unannounced to the door of the family’s home. Soon after, news came to interview the family. This was agreed a few days in advance. The police wanted to see Maria and Valentina’s passports. They did not get that and asked the family to meet at the police station in Haugesund on Tuesday morning. – Have you hidden your passport? – I said that I don’t have a passport now, but I will find them and bring them with me. When they threaten to take my family, I try in every way to stop them, says Garred. On Tuesday, the three met at the immigration unit at Haugesund police station. After an hour and a half they came out without passports, but with a preliminary notice of deportation in their hands. After the meeting, they have with them the document showing that deportation proceedings will be ordered against them. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news It says here that UDI is preparing deportation proceedings against them. They have two weeks to appeal the decision. For this, they are entitled to free legal aid. news has read the document. – Now I have to get hold of a lawyer, but regardless of whether there is no deportation decision, the second decision from UNE still applies, says Garred. The wife sat down on a chair in the hallway at the police station. – I am completely shocked. If we leave, we can’t come back. I feel like a bandit, she says. – After all, I am a person In Valentina’s future plans is the dance line at Skeisvang secondary school in Haugesund. She has already been on the entrance exam. When she grows up, she wants to work with something within the cultural field. – I am allowed to go to school for the last week, go on a class trip and to Trondheim. But then it’s over. They treat us like we are a thing. I am a person, she says. Valentina is looking forward to going to the UKM festival in Trondheim to dance. But when she comes home, she is thrown out of the country. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news Mora Maria worries especially about her daughter when she thinks about returning to Brazil. – I am thinking of Valentina, who has made friends in Norway, and has just started to live life. If we go to Brazil, we have to start all over again, she says. Garred does not have the opportunity to follow. Then he loses his income. – I cannot afford to travel back and forth or send them back and forth. – What are you doing now? – What should I do? On the night of Tuesday, Garred sent a complaint via e-mail to the Civil Ombudsman about the case. The Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness refers to UDI and UDI refers to UNE for comments. Must document income Head of unit at UNE, Ingun Marie Halle, tells news that if Garred can document that he has received work income in addition to disability benefits, the requirement will be met. – It is stated that Garred has some work in addition to disability benefits. At the time of UNE’s decision, it was not documented that he actually had employment income, she says. She further explains that exceptions to the maintenance requirement can be made where there is “particularly strong human consideration”. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news In the assessment, emphasis is placed, among other things, on whether the application maintains an already established family life with Garred, or whether there is talk of establishing a new family life. – In this case, there was talk of establishing a new family life, something that was given less weight than if it was about maintaining an already established family life, she says. They explain that they have looked at their daughter Valentina’s situation, but that it is not of such a nature that it will be decisive. – My daughter, who is now 15 years old, has been in Norway for two years and has just finished primary school in Norway. According to practice, a longer connection is required for such time to be decisive. She has a long connection to Brazil and will return to her homeland with her own mother, says Halle.
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Kay Garred loses his family because he lit NOK 6,000 too little – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
