– Now I feel that the state is taking my family away from me and ruining our life because of a few hundred kroner a month, says Kay Garred. He is clearly affected when he is around his stepdaughter Valentina Duarte De Oliveira (15). news meets them at the Fredtun camp site outside Skudeneshavn where Valentina has the last day of school with her class. His wife Maria has remained at home. On Thursday, they received the letter from the Norwegian Immigration Service (UNE), which states that they do not change the decision from earlier which stated that Valentina and her mother Maria will be refused a residence permit in Norway and must leave the country. – When I’m with my friends at school, I don’t think much about it. But when I get home I start thinking that I have to go back to Brazil, says the 15-year-old. Thursday was Valentina’s last day of school at Skudeneshavn junior high school. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news The lawyer: – Completely behind the scenes It was last week that news told about Valentina from Brazil and her mother Maria, who has lived in Norway for the past two years. Maria has been married to Norwegian Kay Garred for six years and they previously lived in Brazil, but moved to Norway because of the pandemic. But the application for family reunification was rejected because Garred spent NOK 6,356 too little a year. The 66-year-old receives disability benefits. Last week, they received advance notice from the police that the Directorate of Immigration is preparing deportation proceedings against them. They will then be banned from entering the entire Schengen area at the same time. At the police station in Haugesund last week when the family was due to meet with the immigration unit. After the meeting, they brought with them the document which showed that a deportation case had been prepared against them. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news The deadline for submitting documentation and commenting on the decision expires on Tuesday. The police then forward this to UDI. The hope is that UDI will take a different decision than UNE. A specific date for departure has not yet been set.Lawyer Alexander Nyheim Jenssen. Photo: news Their lawyer Alexander Nyheim Jenssen says the decision is completely behind the mark. – I am very disappointed on behalf of the family, I must also be honest to say that I thought this was completely behind the mark. The conditions for family reunification have been met, he says. After Valentina and Maria received a notice of expulsion, the lawyer sent a request for a reversal of the decision from UNE. Here he pointed to an exceptional provision in the immigration regulations where income is disregarded if it is revealed that the reference person, i.e. Garred, is able to support his family. Last week he sold his flat and now has a fortune. The lawyer therefore believes that he fulfills the requirements in the exemption provisions. Complain to the Civil Ombudsman But UNE wrote in the recent letter that the conditions must be met at the time of the decision and that the exemption provisions must possibly be assessed in a new application to the UDI. So they cannot take a position on this now. – This is clearly a system that is far too rigid and formalistic, and it confirms what I myself experience with the immigration administration, that it is a system that has only been created to make it difficult for others, says Jenssen. The lawyer will now write a letter to UDI and explain the situation in the hope that they will make changes to the deportation decision they are now submitting. – I hope there is someone there who can look at the matter with a different eye, he says. Then they must appeal the decision from UNE to the Civil Ombudsman, so that they can possibly change the assignment. – The reason for that is that I think it is a legal error when the immigration authorities reject the request for conversion and indicate that they cannot decide on it, and that the family must submit it in a new application. I think they should have decided on that, says the lawyer. UNE is aware of Jenssen’s criticism. They comment on it as follows: – We have nothing to add beyond that we refer to the decision and previous answers in this case, writes senior adviser Tom Christer Ruud in the communications department at UNE in an e-mail. Unit manager at UNE, Ingun Halle, wrote in an e-mail to news that the conditions must be met at the time of the decision and that new information linked to the assessment of whether the reference person can obviously support himself after the housing sale, must possibly be assessed in a new application. Hope the politicians will notice Valentina has decided to focus on what is good. Last day of school and the trip to Trondheim on Friday, when she will take part in the Youth Cultural Rally with 400 other young people. – I have no choice. I try to focus on what I have to so that I can do the things I want to do, she says. Kay Garred is proud of her stepdaughter Valentina. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news But Kay Garred is frustrated. – My only hope is that people will open their eyes to what is happening and that those with influence and power in this country can look at this. As it is now, disability pensioners are not allowed to have families, because they are not rich enough, he says.
ttn-69
UNE will not change the decision so that Valentina and Maria can stay in Norway – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
