More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
The Home Secretary is thought to be the last chance to save a much-needed physiotherapist being deported.
Satheesh Sankara Gounder says he has run out of all other options in applications and appeals to persuade the Home Office to let him stay in Britain.
Now Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke has written directly to Sajid Javid to try and stop the physiotherapist being sent back to India.
Mr Sankara Gounder has had to sell his practice, Dover Physiotherapy Clinic in the High Street, to keep up with mounting legal and administrative costs in his fight.
It will re-open under new management today.
He told KentOnline: “I appealed in May for an administrative review and the Home Office refused again.
“Next option is a judicial review but I do not have the money to do that.
“I have sold my practice.
“There is no removal proceedings on me but I have received three threatening notices (of deportation).
“As a final attempt MP Charlie Elphicke sent an email to the Home Secretary.”
Mr Sankara Gounder says he has paid about £4,000 for the Home Office and legal costs.
He has also had to pay bills and salaries since June with no income as the Home Office has issued an order called an immigration bail so he is not allowed to work.
He now has to report every four weeks to the UK Visas and Immigration headquarters at Lunar House in Croydon, incurring travelling expenses.
The Home Office had refused to renew Satheesh Sankara Gounder’s Tier 1 entrepreneur visa.
Another type is Tier 2, a visa sponsored by the NHS, but he says he has been told he can’t apply from the UK.
He had failed to get enough points for employees at his practice because he could not hire more physiotherapists.
Mr Elphicke has now told Mr Javid in writing: “There is a known shortage and none are willing to come to Dover.
“Which demonstrates the sad irony here – we are about to deport Dover’s only physiotherapist, precisely because of the lack of them.”
Mr Sankara Gounder ended up as the only private physiotherapist in the Dover area and invested tens of thousands of pounds in his practice.
He has been in the UK since 2011 but has fought since August last year to stop the Home Office deporting him.
The Home Office has held his passport all that time.
Mr Elphicke’s letter to the Home Secretary added: “He has employed two receptionists, and provided proof of numerous attempts over the last two years to employ more physiotherapists.
“For Satheesh to be deported would be a great injustice. He must stay in the UK.”
Mr Sankara Gounder has received a mass of support from both patients and the wider public.
An online petition demanding he stays built up a total 67,803 names by last Friday Aug 31.
Mr Sankara Gounder has had previous permissions to stay in the UK renewed.
His last leave to remain as an entrepreneur migrant, expired last September and he had applied to renew it before the deadline.
A Home Office spokesman now said: “We are currently considering representations on Mr Sankara Gounder’s case.”
