Student of Welsh refused entry to Britain

Evelyn Calcabrini is a young woman, 20-years-old, who lives in Patagonia, a region of Argentina. She belongs to the Welsh-speaking community which settled the Chubut valley in 1865 of whom there are among their descendants about 5000 people who still speak the language.

On May 25 she arrived at Heathrow Airport, London, and after hours of interrogation she was refused entry and sent back to Buenos Aires. She was on her way to spend six months in Wales to improve her Welsh and learn some English.

Although she had letters from Eos Griffiths and his Patagonia-born wife, Carina, who live in Glyndyfrdwy, Denbighshire, with proof of where she was going to live in Wales and the purpose of her visit, the English Border Agency refused to believe her.

She had travelled for 20 hours from her home in Patagonia to Buenos Aires and another 15 hours by plane from Buenos Aires to London. She was interviewed for hours by three different officers, none of whom spoke Spanish fluently.

Her friends contacted Plaid Cymru MPs Elfyn Llwyd and Hywel Williams, and Mr Llwyd spent four hours trying to contact someone in the Home Office to intervene on her behalf but without any success at all.

“She was treated disgracefully,” he said. The UK Border Agency said that their policies are “fair but firm”. They have also claimed there are two million people living in Patagonia and what would happen if they all came to Wales wanting to learn Welsh!

Overseas visitors, particularly students, face similar problems on a daily basis from the arrogant and incompetent Border Agency. The Welsh Assembly Government would not comment stating that immigration is not a devolved field.

At long last the Secretary of State for Wales in London, Peter Hain, and his Minister Wayne David have promised to meet officials of the British Government Home Office to discuss the matter. The Home Office is another department of the UK Government renowned for blunders and incompetence.