Deported Singaporean grandmother fights for UK return

Twenty-seven years of marriage, two British sons and a granddaughter could not protect Singaporean Irene Clennell from deportation, but now the feisty grandma is fighting to get back to her family.

Clennell, 52, was deported to Singapore Sunday, despite being the primary caregiver for her sickly British husband John, who she said has sunk into a mire of depression since she left. "He was crying," she told AFP in an interview at her sister's cramped suburban home in the Southeast Asian city state, where she is sleeping on the sofa as she tries to find a legal way back to her family in Britain. John had femoral artery bypass in his leg last year and suffered a subsequent hernia. Since then, she said, he has struggled to walk far and needed help dressing himself.

"Before, it was different because he was fit and well - he was able to look after himself. But now he can't because of his condition," she said, adding that she had been his sole caregiver at their County Durham home.

Clennell has been holed-up at her sister's Singapore flat, talking to the media and trying to coordinate her legal fight to be allowed back into Britain since she was deported February 26. Her British sister-in-law has hired an immigration lawyer and set up a crowdfunding campaign to cover her legal fees, which had raised more than 53,000 (USD 65,000) by on Friday. Her husband is very desperate for them to be reunited.