Mark and Ngamngon Leonardi

• LAST week saw a loving couple very nearly torn apart – possibly for ever – at the whim of our chaotic and cruel immigration system, (Deportation of Swiss Cottage man’s wife halted at last minute – but ‘fight goes on’, August 1).

Mark and Ngamngon Leonardi have been together for 15 years and married for nearly five. And yet as Mark underwent treatment for end-stage kidney failure, his partner and best friend was snatched away by immigration officials and told she was being sent back to Thailand without him.

Imagine being forced thousands of miles and several time zones from your serious­ly ill partner. Now imagine that happening just because you filled in the wrong form. That is what Ngamngon was put through.

In fact the home office was so intent on sending her away that they even took her to the airport and took away her phone, so she couldn’t communicate with anyone.

It was only thanks to the last-ditch efforts of lawyers and MPs, not to mention the New Journal, that she was saved, literally, as she was about to be put on the plane – and brought back home to Mark’s side.

It was a good outcome for them, but the fight goes on; not just for them, but for tens of thousands of other families at risk of being torn apart by a system that is unjust to its core.

If you think this needs to change, make it happen! Get informed at JCWI’s website, write to your MP, talk to your neighbours – help shine a light on these practices and keep families together, where they belong.

MARY ATKINSON
Families Together Officer
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
Old Street, EC1