{"id":8452,"date":"2024-05-17T00:06:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T00:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=8452"},"modified":"2024-05-17T00:06:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T00:06:07","slug":"ghanaian-man-told-he-is-not-british-after-42-years-in-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=8452","title":{"rendered":"Ghanaian man told he is not British after 42 years in UK"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 53 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

A retired 74-year-old Ghanaian man who has lived in the UK for nearly 50 years must wait a decade before the Home Office will let him stay permanently.<\/p>\n

Nelson Shardey, from Wallasey in Wirral, had for many years assumed he was officially seen as British.<\/p>\n

He only discovered otherwise in 2019 and, despite paying taxes all his adult life, now faces paying thousands of pounds to stay and use the NHS.<\/p>\n

The Home Office declined to comment on the ongoing legal case.<\/p>\n

\u2018Never queried\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Retired newsagent Mr Shardey first came to the UK in 1977 to study accountancy, on a student visa that also allowed him to work.<\/p>\n

After a coup in his native Ghana his family could no longer send him money for the fees.<\/p>\n

He took on a series of jobs, making Mother\u2019s Pride bread and Kipling\u2019s Cakes near Southampton, and Bendick\u2019s Chocolate in Winchester, and 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

\u201cI tried my utmost to educate them the best way I could, so that neither of them would depend on social or anything,\u201d Mr Shardey said.<\/p>\n

He told his sons to \u201clearn hard, get a good job, and work for themselves\u201d, and both went on to university and then careers as a research scientist and a public relations executive.<\/p>\n

Nelson Shardey with his two sons when they were young<\/p>\n

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

\u201cNobody questioned me. I bought all my things on credit, even the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a mortgage. And nobody questioned me about anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Shardey has performed jury service, and in 2007 was given a police award for bravery after tackling a robber who was attacking a delivery man with a baseball bat.<\/p>\n

Nelson Shardey receiving his police bravery award in 2007<\/p>\n

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

The Home Office said he had no right to be in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u2018I can\u2019t afford to pay\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Officials told him to apply for the 10-year route to settlement, designed for people who want to move to the UK for work.<\/p>\n

Over the 10 years it costs about \u00a37,000, with a further \u00a310,500 over the same period to access the NHS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot afford to pay any part of the money they are asking,\u201d said Mr Shardey, who is recovering from prostrate cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cTelling me to go through that route is a punishment, and it\u2019s not fair in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why this fuss at all, because I put my life, my whole self into this country. \u201d<\/p>\n

When he tried to extend his right to stay in the UK online two years ago, he filled out the wrong form.<\/p>\n

That meant the 10-year process had to begin again in 2023.<\/p>\n

As a result, Mr Shardey will not be allowed to stay in the UK permanently until he is 84.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought it was a joke. It\u2019s just ridiculous,\u201d said his son Jacob, who does research in cardiovascular physiology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would he need to go and start this 10-year route when he\u2019s been here since 1977?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been here longer than the people who are working in the Home Office on his case have been alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Exceptional facts\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the help of Nicola Burgess, a lawyer at Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU), Mr Shardey is now taking the Home Office to court.<\/p>\n

His case \u2013 which his sons are trying to pay for through crowdfunding \u2013 is that the Home Office should have treated him as an exception because of the length of time he has been in the UK, and because of his bravery award and service to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that at least one caseworker has looked at his file and suggested that he should be granted indefinite leave to remain because there are exceptional facts,\u201d Ms Burgess said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you look at it on a personal level, if Nelson was your friend or your neighbour, you would absolutely agree that he should be given the immediate right to settle.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Home Office spokesman said: \u201cIt would be inappropriate to comment on active legal proceedings.\u201d<\/p>

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A retired 74-year-old Ghanaian man who has lived in the UK for nearly 50 years must wait a decade before the Home Office will let him stay permanently. Nelson Shardey,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","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-8452","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\/8452","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=8452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}