Fast food worker who has lived all his life in Shrewsbury threatened with deportation - to Uganda
A fast food worker who has never owned a passport was told that he would be deported to Uganda, despite having lived in Shrewsbury all his life.
Kyle Herbert, 22, has never even travelled abroad but Home Office officials claimed that he had ‘no lawful basis’ to be in the UK.
Kyle, who worked for KFC, said he was astonished to receive the letter which ordered him to leave the country or risk a £5,000 fine, imprisonment and removal by force.
During the ordeal, he was almost sacked from his job after immigration officers rang his bosses at KFC claiming that he was an illegal immigrant.
It meant he was suspended without pay for a fortnight as he desperately tried to prove he was British.
He now worries about travelling abroad as he says that he has never received any official assurance that the matter has been resolved.
Kyle said: “It was just ridiculous. Where did they get Uganda from? I went home and immediately tried to get in touch with the Home Office but it was just ridiculous.
“The rigmarole was stupid, I couldn’t get through to them for days. All this time I was losing money because I couldn’t work. A week went by and another notice of removal came through, which said that I needed to report to a deportation centre.”
The letter claimed that he had ‘no lawful basis’ to be in the UK, despite being born in England to parents Phil and Tracey.
'Do I sound like I’m from Uganda?'
He managed to get through to the Home Office officials after a week of trying and demanded an explanation.
He said: “I told the guy on my phone, do I sound like I’m from Uganda?
“I was passed on to a manager who said that they had no idea how or why it had happened.
“They told me to put a claim in for compensation but that was a nightmare and I ended up giving up on it.
“I couldn’t believe that I was having to prove that I wasn’t an illegal immigrant when I was born here.”
Kyle decided to speak out about his ordeal after seeing the Windrush scandal unfold.
His ordeal comes after an unprecedented fortnight of turmoil for the Home Office, with Amber Rudd resigning after she said she had ‘inadvertently misled’ the Home Affairs Select Committee over deportation targets.
He said: “I really don’t want it to happen again. They gave me a verbal confirmation but I’m concerned that it could happen again in the future.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “Mr Herbert was sent a letter in May 2015 incorrectly warning that he was the subject of enforcement action. When the mistake was identified we wrote to Mr Herbert to acknowledge the error and apologise.”
