A desperate British couple are pleading with the Home Office to urgently grant their eight-year-old daughter's visa after Hurricane Melissa left her homeless and destitute in Jamaica.
A Family Torn Apart
Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown has been living with her grandmother in Cash Hill, Hanover, while her parents, Kerrian Bigby and Jerome Hardy, saved for her UK settlement visa. The couple, who married earlier this year, live in north London after Bigby joined her British husband in April 2023.
The family had applied for the settlement visa in June, but the devastating hurricane that struck Jamaica on 28 October has turned their difficult wait into a full-blown emergency.
Life After the Hurricane
The category 5 hurricane confirmed at least 28 deaths and left widespread destruction across the island. Jerome Hardy, a telecommunications worker, described the desperate situation his daughter now faces.
"The family home in Cash Hill has been completely destroyed by the hurricane and Lati-Yana is living in one room at the moment with 15 other people," he said. "They are struggling to access food and water. There is no school and phone connectivity is difficult."
Kerrian Bigby, a care worker, expressed her profound distress: "I am so distressed, I can't eat or sleep. If I put any food in my mouth, I can't eat it because I'm thinking about Lati-Yana who is struggling to get food."
The Race Against Time
The couple had been saving to pay the visa application fee of more than £4,000 when the hurricane struck. Their lawyer, Naga Kandiah of MTC Solicitors, emphasised the urgency of their situation.
"An eight-year-old girl has been separated from her parents not by choice but because her family needed time to save the exceptionally high fees required by the Home Office," Kandiah stated. "When Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica, her home was destroyed. Overnight she went from a child waiting to be reunited with her parents to a child with no shelter, no security and no certainty about tomorrow."
The family has received support from their local MP, Dawn Butler, who has joined their lawyer in urging the Home Office to expedite the visa decision. Meanwhile, the Home Office maintained that "all visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the Immigration Rules."
As rescue services reported that more than 70% of Jamaicans lacked electricity and approximately 6,000 people remained in emergency shelters, the couple continue their anxious wait, hoping to bring their daughter to safety in the UK.
