{"id":20956,"date":"2024-07-12T01:40:07","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T01:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=20956"},"modified":"2024-07-12T11:27:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T11:27:20","slug":"ghanaian-man-living-in-uk-since-1977-can-stay-home-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=20956","title":{"rendered":"Ghanaian man living in UK since 1977 can stay \u2013 Home Office"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 6 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

A retired shopkeeper who was told he was not British despite living in the UK for nearly 50 years can stay for good, the Home Office has decided.<\/p>\n

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Nelson Shardey, from Wallasey in Wirral, has lived in Britain since arriving as a student in 1977, but in 2019 he was told he had no right to live in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The 74-year-old, originally from Ghana, has now been granted indefinite leave to remain after the government said it recognized his case was \u201cexceptional\u201d.<\/p>\n

More than \u00a348,000 raised towards his legal fight would be donated to charity, Mr Shardey\u2019s family said.<\/p>\n

Bravery award<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Shardey arrived in the UK on a student visa, but a coup in Ghana meant his family was unable to pay his fees.<\/p>\n

He took on various jobs, including making Mother\u2019s Pride bread and Kipling\u2019s Cakes near Southampton, and Bendick\u2019s Chocolate in Winchester.<\/p>\n

He said no-one ever queried his right to live or work in the UK.<\/p>\n

He married a British woman and moved to Wallasey to run his own business, a newsagent called Nelson\u2019s News.<\/p>\n

When that marriage ended, he married another British woman and they had two sons, Jacob and Aaron.<\/p>\n

Mr Shardey says he never left the UK, as he saw no need to and regarded it as his home.<\/p>\n

In 2007, he was given a police award for bravery after tackling a robber who was attacking a delivery man with a baseball bat.<\/p>\n

But when he applied for a passport in 2019 so he could return to Ghana after the death of his mother, he was told he was not a British citizen.<\/p>\n

Officials told him to apply for the 10-year route to settlement which costs about \u00a37,000, with a further \u00a310,500 over the same period to access the NHS \u2013 sums Mr Shardey initially despaired of finding.<\/p>\n

His case against the Home Office argued he should be treated as an exception because of his long residence in the UK, his bravery award and service to the community.<\/p>\n

The Home Office said the Immigration Act allowed it discretion to grant Mr Shardey indefinite leave to remain outside the normal immigration rules.<\/p>\n

It will also waive the application fee.<\/p>\n

Mr Shardey said he was \u201coverwhelmed, very very happy and relieved\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank everybody who believed in us and supported us in words and donations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Shardey added while the \u201cbattle\u201d was won, he and his supporters \u201chope to win the war, for the authorities to agree that the 10-year route is inhuman and abolish it or shorten it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Shardey\u2019s lawyer, Nicola Burgess of Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, said she was thrilled at the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cNelson\u2019s bravery in the face of a dysfunctional immigration system has been inspirational,\u201d said Ms Burgess.<\/p>\n

She urged the new government to simplify the system to avoid \u201cmany more\u201d like Mr Shardey, being forced into \u201can endless cycle of applications, bureaucracy and expensive fees\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Shardey\u2019s sons, Aaron and Jacob, said his victory \u201cmeans the absolute world to us\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so grateful to our legal team\u2026 and everyone who supported us\u2026 from sharing our story to donating, we cannot thank you enough,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

The family will donate the money they raised to three charities: The Boaz Trust, Clatterbridge Cancer Charity and Wirral Foodbank.<\/p>\n

A Home Office spokesperson said officials were working with Mr Shardey to process his application for indefinite leave to remain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe apologize for any inconvenience and distress caused,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

ECG announces emergency maintenance on prepayment server<\/a><\/strong>
\nLady, 19, missing after delivering food to stranger at Mankessim<\/a><\/strong>
\nUpcoming artiste lynched at Tanoso<\/a><\/strong><\/p>

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A retired shopkeeper who was told he was not British despite living in the UK for nearly 50 years can stay for good, the Home Office has decided. Nelson Shardey,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21046,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20956\/revisions\/21046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}