On a wall of Robins Farm Shop in the beautiful Dorset -Dorp Abbotsbury, a line of Romans, chapter 8 verse 28, is prominently displayed.
“And we know that all things for the good collaboration for those who love God,” it says.
The only problem is that the two ecclesiastical people who set up the verse and stare at it during their working life question their accuracy.
Every day now Cheryl Robins, 61, can be thrown out of the country and deported to South Africa, despite the fact that her 65-year-old husband Mike had a British passport and the couple that invested around £ 90,000 in a local company. Cheryl and Mike can still 'love God', but things for them do not seem to 'work together forever'. Far from it.
“When my second application for a partner service was rejected in December, I wanted to bring my car to the deepest oceans and end it all,” says Cheryl, demolished in tears and stared in the distance.
'I have trouble sleeping at night and even when I do that, I have terrible dreams to be fascinated and drag away.
'It's as if our entire life has been turned upside down.
“My children keep saying,” Mom, you're not the same person, “and they are right. Mike and I will be together forever, but even our relationship has suffered. '
Mike and Cheryl have sunk £ 90,000 in their farm shop that sells meat and poultry
At first glance, Cheryl seems to be exactly the kind of person that you could assume that the government would like to welcome with open arms in the country.
She and Mike, who have been married for 24 years, are hard-working, handsome, respectful, respectful British laws and traditions and have become popular in the village where they moved almost three years ago.
But Cheryl, who has three adult children and is a grandmother, failed by new visa rules introduced in December 2023 by the former conservative home secretary James Cleverly, where visa applicants have to prove that they have savings of £ 88,500 or that they earn at least £ 29,000 per year.
Cheryl and Mike fall short on both points, despite buying the former butcher for £ 25,000 and plows more than £ 65,000 in renovating the building and buying new refrigerators and freezers.
Cheryl has never drawn a salary from the young company and is now starting to make a small profit.
In addition to meat and poultry, they sell a series of biltong-through air dried meat that is a staple in South Africa-self-made cakes and Cheryl's specialty, milking tarts (similar to a custard cake) for £ 2 each.
They have just introduced a cafe at the front of the store and expected that trade would pick up in the spring and summer.
Abbotsbury, a tourist hotspot on the south coast near Weymouth, is famous for its subtropical gardens with more than 6,000 plant species and his Swannery, which is home to 600 birds and dates from the 14th century.
“Nobody seems interested in what we have invested and the service we offer in the area,” says Mike. “On the Home Office it is just a matter of check boxes, and we have not checked the right boxes.”
In a final step, the couple have just offered their company for sale to collect enough cash to meet the visa rules is time against them.
In the meantime, Mike, a mechanical engineer, has applied for a job at Hitachi Rail in Yorkshire, but would rather stay in Abbotsbury, where he and Cheryl have made friends.
They go to a church in nearby Bridport and contribute to a part of their wares to a local food bank.
Cheryl Robins, 61, are confronted with deported to South Africa, even though her husband has a British passport
There is widespread support for the profession of the couple against the decision of the home office.
The local liberal -Democrat -Member of Parliament, Edward Morello, has written the Minister of the Interior, Yvette Cooper, and pronounced his' deep dissatisfaction 'and points out that' the only reason why Mrs. Robins does not meet the strict savings requirement is because she is because she has re -invested its money in the company instead of holding it on a savings account '.
Morello said to the mail: 'This is another example of our immigration system that does not work. These are good people who want to contribute to our economy – and we are led to believe that the government believes in growth.
'Abbotsbury is the kind of village that stores needs, as it is run by Mr. and Mrs. Robins. As soon as a service like this goes, we will not get it back. '
Cheryl was born in Zimbabwe, where her family lived in the capital Harare (formerly known as Salisbury). Her father was an engineer who specialized in making household boilers.
Mike, who owns a British passport because of his English father, was also born in Zimbabwe and worked as fitter for his Air Force. He and Cheryl married in 2000.
'We had a good life to [President Robert] Mugabe came to power and started his reign of terror by focusing on white people, “says Cheryl.
'We put it as we could, but it all got too much, and so one day in 2003 we loaded our two cars with everything we could fit in and drove across the border to South Africa, where we with Success requested for citizenship. '
The Robins settled near Durban. But in 2019, with the South African economy in a regrettable state and, as Cheryl says, “the violence that gets worse,” they decided to look for a new life in Britain.
“Mike was almost 60 at that time and the brutal truth is that if you are so old and a white man in South Africa, it is very difficult to get a good job,” says Cheryl. “That is not a racist comment – but a fact.”
Traveling on his British passport, Mike's Cheryl left in South Africa and came to London, where he found work as an engineer at London Underground. He rented a small room in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and started saving money to become Cheryl's sponsor.
“It wasn't easy,” says Mike. “I went back from time to time to see Cheryl, but air rates were not cheap and we had to build our savings to meet the immigration rules.”
Cheryl and Mike, who have been married for 24 years, are hardworking, personal, respectful for the British laws and traditions
The couple has become popular in the beautiful Dorset -village of Abbotsbury where they moved almost three years ago
Those rules, when Cheryl applied for the first time in 2021, were a few a saving of £ 60,500 or an income of £ 18,600.
The Robins met this requirement, which meant that Cheryl got her visa (after completing an English test) and shortly thereafter were added to her husband in Great Britain.
“Mike has always been interested in meat and made his own Biltong in South Africa, so when we saw that the butcher was for sale in Abbotsbury, we thought this was the perfect opportunity,” says Cheryl. “We didn't know the area, but almost immediately fell in love with it and were welcomed in the village.”
Abbotsbury has a population of around 450 people. Most of the houses of which at least 100 in the ranking are part of the 15,000-hectare Ilchester Estate, owned by the Hon Charlotte Townshend, one of the richest women in Great Britain. She is worth £ 489 million, according to the most recent rich list.
Mrs. Townshend, 70, is the only other person, apart from the king – with whom she is friends – who can keep swans in Britain. Her Abbotsbury Swannery at the Jurassic Coast is the home of more than 600 stupid swans.
The current test of Cheryl and Mike started last year when she had to extend her visa.
This must be done two years and nine months after a first visa and after two successful extensions you can then register to stay in the country for an indefinite period of time.
“We assumed that we would be assessed under the same conditions as in 2021 when we first applied for Cheryl's visa,” says Mike.
'But certainly what we have invested in a company must be taken into account. It seems so unfair – and trying to talk to someone in the British visa department of the home office has proved impossible. '
The brutal truth is that it can be more difficult to get a visa to stay legally in Britain than illegal.
When you arrive on a small boat from France, you are housed and you will receive legal assistance during the search for asylum. Such help was not offered to Cheryl.
And, clearly, much more undeserved visa applicants than Cheryl get British Visa. A little more than a week ago, an Egyptian NHS doctor won Israelis because he was fleeing for the massacre of 7 October her legal challenge to stay in the country.
Wendy Minor, who has been living in Abbotsbury for 40 years, is a regular customer of Robins Farm Shop.
She says: 'It is heartbreaking to see what Cheryl and Mike are going through. They have become part of the local community. '
Cheryl tries to bring her immediate future to your period.
“I have to plan the worst,” she says. “That's why I started in boxes in boxes. We have spoken with two lawyers and receive mixed messages about our case.
'I have nothing to go back to in South Africa. At my age it will be impossible to get a job.
“It will be like a death sentence.”
Just look who is still there …
- An Albanian convicted in his home country in absence for shooting a man with a Kalashnikov in the head and sentenced to 13 years.
- A Bengalian man sentenced to 12 years for the killing of his wife, whom he had used to get a partnerfisum.
- A Turkish drug lord sentenced to 16 years in prison. His crime family was supposed to be behind 90 percent of heroin in Great Britain at a certain moment.
- A Congolese pedophile was imprisoned for three years for sexual abuse of his stepdaughter and two other young girls in the family.
- An Albanian about benefits that were imprisoned for six years for raping a 15-year schoolgirl.
- A Somali terrorist given 13 years before his role in the failed 21/7 bombing in London in 2005.
- A Pakistani pedophile imprisoned for 18 months because he tried to get three 'hardly any adolescent' girls to make sex.
- A Somali man who was imprisoned for manslaughter for five years.
- A Lithuanian prison sentence for 11 years for burglary, tried theft and serious physical damage.
