I am sending the following to the Head of the Civil Service today. I wondered if anyone else would like to do the same. Sir Bob Kerslake Head of the Civil Service Cabinet Office 70 Whitehall LONDON SW1A 2AS Dear Sir I wish to make a formal disciplinary complaint against Sarah Rapson, Director General, UK Visa and Immigration Directorate and Mandie Campbell, Direct General, Immigration Enforcement Directorate, both of the Home Office for their roles in the deportation of Miss Yashika Bageerathi on Wednesday 2nd April 2014. I believe their actions amounted to: • Contempt of a Parliamentary Select Committee • Bringing the UK Government and Civil Service into disrepute • Willful misuse of public funds Miss Bageerathi was deported weeks before her A level examinations. This was despite 176,000 people signing a petition asking for her to stay; despite the Home Affairs Select Committee strongly urging the Home Office to reconsider their decision and despite Keith Vaz PM writing directly to the Home Secretary on the day of deportation saying that the Select committee found that the Home Office had made no compelling case to justify deporting her before her examinations. By deporting her yesterday the Ms Rapson and Ms Campbell knowingly wasted 2 years of publically funded education – A level examinations are specific to a particular examination board and their curriculum can change from year to year. This means that if you do not take that Board’s exams at the end of that examination year the investment of time, teaching resources and public money is lost. By deporting Miss Bageerathi before her exams they also committed additional public expenditure in terms of security officials, two of whom travelled to Mauritius with Miss Bageerathi, and additional airline tickets, including 8 rows of seats to form a barrier between Yashika and the rest of the passengers, that would not have been necessary had they delayed deportation until after her exams when she had agreed to leave. Finally by insisting on taking this course of action, despite the widespread public outcry and strength of feeling, they have brought the UK Government and Home Office into disrepute. I believe that these three actions each constitute gross misconduct and as such they should be subject to summary dismissal. If you do not feel that is the case then they should be suspended from their jobs whilst a formal investigation is conducted. I am willing to give evidence to that investigation if you so desire. As this is a formal disciplinary complaint I believe you are legally obliged to take note of it and investigate it. I appreciate that public officials have to make difficult decisions, but the exercise of power is one thing, the abuse of power is quite another. I look forward to hearing how you are going to take this complaint forward. Yours sincerely Fiona Senior Cc Keith Vaz MP David Burrows MP
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 11:21:31 +0000