Select Committee on Home Affairs Additional Written Evidence


40.  Supplementary memorandum submitted by Louise Massamba (Brides Without Borders)

  In his answer to Question 682, Andre was trying to vocalise that we had to register our intention to marry at the Registry Office where they checked his immigration status. Following this we were allowed to get married as the registrar had no concerns about the authenticity of the marriage. Then the authenticity of the marriage was questioned. How can one Government organisation have no issues and another then have doubts.

  Another thing I would like to mention is that during Andre's time in DRC whilst waiting for his Visa he did experience a very negative experience at the hands of the Entry Clearance Officer. He was asked to return to the Embassy on a particular day at 12 noon with the medical documents. When Andre advised the ECO he had no documentation which indicated he was expected at the Embassy and this would be a problem because the security officers were not allowed to let anyone into the Embassy without he was advised not to worry as the ECO would phone the gate and add him on the list of expected attendees for the day. When he arrived at the Embassy at 11.15 he waited to be called in but after four hours he was still outside in temperatures of 110 Degrees. It was only when he asked an employee of the Embassy who was returning to work to tell the ECO he was outside that he was admitted. When he entered the ECO was extremely disrespectful and demanded to know why he was late.

  Andre explained he was outside for over four hours and it was the ECO's fault he was late not his and he thought the ECO owed him an apology for his own mistake he was spoken to very unprofessionally and told he would get no apology and he was lucky his application was being dealt with at all. This is wholly unacceptable and another symptom of lack of respect for human beings. It only leads us to believe that the whole system is set up to be as oppressive as possible in the hope that applications for visa's will decrease. Government employees are representatives of the state and this clearly shows they need basic training in public relations. Power can be a terrible thing!!!

  I would be most grateful if you could add this to the evidence as Andre only spoke about it at a later date. He had only been back in the UK two days when we gave evidence and really had not had much time for him to relive his whole experience in the DRC before coming to London.

  I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to express ourselves.

May 2006





 
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