A TANGLED PROBLEM
Social attitudes in the late 1960s and early 1970s were not all sweetness and light, even less than they are now.
A man of Pakistani origin came to see me in the early 1980s.
Soon after he had come to the United Kingdom, he had formed a friendship with a young lady. This friendship had somehow resulted in a pregnancy.
I kept a straight face, because the “somehow” seemed fairly clear to me.
Unfortunately, the relationship deteriorated. By the time the baby was born the couple were not seeing each other.
She allowed him to see the baby, by bringing the baby to a meeting point. She did not want him visiting her home. He saw the baby every week, helped financially, and did what he could to help.
FOR THE BABY’S GOOD
One day, at the usual meeting, she explained that she had a problem. The child was relatively dark, and he showed his Asian heritage. She was getting hostility in her neighbourhood. The ladies who stopped any pram to coo at babies spat their disgust when they saw the baby was not white. There was an assumption that if she had a black baby she must be a prostitute.
Her parents were saying that she was young and attractive and would find another man.
However most men would prefer not to take on a child, and very few men would want to take on a half caste child (I report the vocabulary used at the time, not the terminology I would myself use).
For the child, growing up in the girl’s society was likely to be unpleasant and upsetting. As he was also illegitimate his schooldays would be Hell.
For the child’s sake, it would be better off in the father’s community. She would be better off without the child. He should take the child.
Village and Family
As a single man in work the father was not well equipped to take on a child, not yet a toddler. He had no female relatives in the UK to help with the child. The only practical decision was to take the child back to his family in Pakistan.
He took the child home to the village, and the child was cared for by the wife of one of his brothers.
The lad was now old enough to come to England and work.
He was a British Citizen because he was born here before the law changed. All he needed was his British passport.
An application was made to the British High Commission for a passport.
The application was refused.
As the child had been so very young when he went to Pakistan, no-one had bothered to get him a passport. The only paperwork he had was his original British birth certificate.
The Consular Officer pointed out that the young man stood in front of him might well be the person the birth certificate related to, but equally well he might not be that person.
The fact that the young man had blue eyes was in his favour, but was not conclusive. Some Pakistanis have blue eyes, inherited from followers of Alexander The Great.
DNA evidence, if obtained, would show the boy was the son of his father, but that alone did not qualify him for citizenship.
DNA evidence from mother, if she could be traced, might help. Even then, this might be a child born abroad, not the child she had had in England.
The other problem was that she was unlikely to want to help. She would by now have settled into a solid relationship with someone else. That person might well not know of an earlier child. There was considerable risk that she would refuse to help.
A SURPRISE WITNESS
We started discussing who might be able to give evidence if the case went to court.
People from the village who knew the story, perhaps?
“Is this any good?” he asked.
It was a photo of his son aged about seven years old. It was clearly the same child who was now aged fourteen. I was astounded to see that the back was stamped with details of a photographer in Scotland!
It seemed that when the boy was about seven years old, a white man had come to the village. He was a traveller passing through. As one would expect, the children gathered round him, because a white man in that Pakistani village was very unusual.
The children studied him closely.
He noticed one boy had blue eyes.
He asked why this child had blue eyes.
It was explained that the boy was born in England but had come to the village as a baby because his English mother could not look after him. The man was actually a professional photographer, and he asked for permission to take the boy’s picture.
Some months later, when he returned to Scotland, he had sent a print to the village, with his details stamped on the back.
Yellow Pages
I telephoned Yellow Pages for the photographer. He was in the same town, but he had moved address.
I sent him a photocopy of the photograph, and asked if he remembered the circumstances in which the photo had been taken. Would he be willing to give evidence in the Immigration Court in Leeds?
He wrote a very nice letter back explaining the circumstances in which the photo had been taken, and he confirmed that he would travel to Yorkshire to give evidence when required.
I sent the photo and the letter to the Passport Officer at the British Embassy in Islamabad.
The Passport Officer wrote back to thank me for my efforts. In the light of this new evidence he had now written to the boy to come and collect his British passport.
SIX LYCHEES
The client was in ill health. He had never married, and he was living alone on benefits. If he went back to the village the benefits would stop, so he was stranded here, living in a rented room, poor as a church mouse.
A few days after I wrote to tell him the result he came into reception.
He had a gift for me that he hoped I would take in the spirit in which it was offered. It was six lychees, bought in the market. I was proud to take them.
Whenever I see lychees I think of him.
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