Candice Chesher (18) petitioned Prime Minister Tony Blair in a bid to stave off a deportation order. The South African teenager was refused permission to stay in the UK with her family, who moved to Britain from South Africa in 2003. The family live in Ripon, northern Yorkshire. Her mother, Karen (38), has an Irish passport, and her brother, Alex (15), and Nottingham-born step-father, Martin (43), have British passports. Hours after Candice visited Downing Street, the Home Office released a statement appearing to indicate she could stay because her mother holds an Irish passport. The statement further stated that European law states that descendents under the age of 21 have the right to live with an EU national who is employed in another member country. Martin rubbished the claims, saying the Home Office had already told them they had exhausted all rights of appeal to stay in the UK.
Karen and Martin Chesher applied for Candice to be allowed to stay in England soon after they arrived in 2003. The application was rejected because Candice has a South African passport - her natural father, who left her and her mother when she was 10 months old, is South African. The family won an appeal in February last year after adjudicators decided that it was wrong to split up the family. However, the Home Office launched a counter-appeal and won on the grounds of an "error in law". Officials argued that Candice had to go back to South Africa because she has a grandmother and an uncle there. The family had not spoken to the 60-year-old grandmother since falling out with her 5 years ago. The uncle, who looks after three children of his own and lives more than 120 miles from Pretoria, has said that he could not care for Candice.
Martin, a boat-builder, went to South Africa from Nottingham in 1983. He brought the family to England after he lost his job, along with a house and car, in Pretoria. He and Karen have been married for 12 years, both have jobs and recently bought a semi-detached house.
