‘How can I start again at 68?’ Maria has spent 50 years in the UK – and is fighting deportation

She left the Netherlands for Britain in the 1970s at just 17. Now, after receiving a short suspended sentence, she faces removal to a country she hasn’t lived in for five decades or visited since 1999 Last December, a letter from the Home Office dropped through Maria’s door. When she read it, she screamed. At 68, she lives with her disabled partner, Tom, who she cares for, in a rental home in west London, and has been resident in the UK for almost 50 years. The letter said the home secretary ...

By Diane Taylor