It’s fair to say the British immigration system is rarely praised for its efficiency.
But did it really have to leap into action and block an Italian man from visiting the UK with his British partner?
That’s the question being asked by 65–year–old artist and PR professional Mary Stuart–Miller, who was left stunned when Border Force knocked back Domenico Celentano, her partner of nine years, as he tried to enter the UK on Monday.
Italian national Mr Celentano, 45, was hauled away from his partner by stern officials in Calais who fingerprinted him and even took his mugshot as if he was a common criminal – before asking him questions about his religion.
The irony? He doesn’t actually want to stay in the UK – and was in fact coming to help Mary pack up her things and what little was left of her life here after more than a decade living in Europe.
The pair had been to view a flat in the Netherlands earlier the same day Mr Celentano was stopped.
‘He felt like a criminal, like a terrorist, the way he was treated,’ Mary told the Daily Mail. ‘He didn’t really understand what was going on. It was way over the top.’
Mary, originally from Surrey, has spent most of the last 12 years in Rome, where the vast majority of her personal possessions currently sit in a storage unit.
It was in the Italian capital that she met Domenico, who offered to help her cook for Project Rome, the homeless charity she established to feed thousands that made her national news.
Mary Stuart-Miller with her partner Domenico Celentano, who was refused entry to the UK on Monday
She believes Border Force officials suspected her of trying to bring him into the UK to live illegally (pictured together in 2017)
Last December she rented a home in Haslemere, Surrey, on a short-term basis so she had a place to recover from a series of operations she was having in the UK, with her partner by her side.
But Border Force has sought to claim Domenico has been illegally living in Britain – despite the fact the pair are hoping to buy a house in Italy.
They told all of this to unimpressed immigration officers who nonetheless declared his ‘centre of life’ to be the UK, turning him away for not being a ‘genuine visitor’.
Mary suspects Home Office officials have looked dimly upon the fact her partner has spent almost nine of the last 12 months in the UK across two visits.
He accompanied her to Hazelmere, supporting her as she recovered from two cataract surgeries and the removal of her gallbladder between December and March.
They then left for France – but returned within days as Mary’s mother’s health declined. She died on April 13 at a care home in Dorset; Mary and Domenico stayed in the UK for her funeral and the scattering of her ashes, which took months to arrange.
Home Office rules state that EU residents can be in the UK for up to six months at a time without a visa; the edicts are less clear on how often they can return.
To Mary, it seems Domenico has paid a heavy price for his compassion. There was also the small matter of their 20–year age gap, which Mary feels aroused suspicion.
She continued: ‘I kept saying to him, “Let’s leave as soon as the funeral is done, I just want to leave. Let’s go back to Italy. Let’s look at getting a place, empty the storage.
‘He said we should wait a bit longer; my family wanted to distribute my mum’s ashes and my younger sister’s ashes on the 17th of August.
‘I said, “Okay, you win. We’ll stay in the UK. Let’s do that, and then draw a line under it”. And I honestly don’t see where we went wrong.
‘There is an age difference between us. I’m 20 years older, and I frankly think that they took one look at me and thought, “She’s trying to bring somebody into the UK as a favour so he can work and live”. And it couldn’t be further from the truth.’
Mary and Domenico travelled across Greece and Italy during September and October before making the decision to clear out the Hazelmere house and end the lease.
She had phoned the Home Office for advice on bringing him to the UK, and was told her partner could come as an Italian resident for no more than six months.
She claims Border Force officials did not believe that he was only visiting the UK temporarily to help her clear out a rented house
The brutal letter spelling out that, despite their intention to buy a house in Italy, the Home Office decided Domenico’s ‘centre of life’ was in the UK
‘Several people reiterated, it’s absolutely fine – after six months, as long as you go out of the UK for a bit, you can then come back,’ she recalls. ‘We were ever mindful that we were adhering to the rules.’
‘We would go overseas, have a holiday, find ourselves a property in either Holland or Italy, and conclude the story in England. That’s what we were trying to do.’
Domenico applied for his electronic travel authorisation (ETA) – required for all EU visitors not requiring a visa as of April – in which he openly declared that he was currently unemployed. It was approved almost immediately.
Early on Monday, they viewed an apartment in Axel, in the Netherlands. The town is a short two–hour drive from Calais, making it easy for Mary to visit her 93–year–old father as well as her grown–up son and two daughters in the UK.
And at the gates on a rainy afternoon in northern France, as they frantically rushed for their Eurotunnel train, the couple solemnly swore to the border officials that they would leave the UK no later than February.
‘My wish was to go back, pack everything up, and come straight back [to Europe]. But Domenico said, “Let’s take a little bit longer,” so I said to the lady in the booth: maximum February,’ she recalls.
It was then that Border Force – which has seen almost 40,000 people arrive into the UK by small boat this year alone – swung into uncharacteristic action.
‘She confiscated his passport, stamped mine, and told me to go park around the back of the office – then they separated us. They didn’t want me to talk to him,’ Mary says.
‘They took him in a room with a translator, were told exactly what I had said, then took him into a cell–type room, took his fingerprints and took his photograph. They really gave him an inquisition, asking him his religion. Why ask that?’
Mary says attempts to prove that they had been in a long–term relationship for several years were rebuffed.
Domenico was then handed a wad of papers from Border Force telling him, effectively, to get stuffed – having spent too long in the UK for their liking.
Mary and Domenico pictured in Amsterdam. The pair had been to view an apartment to let in the Netherlands the day the Italian was stopped from entering Britain
The UK border as seen at Calais (file picture), where Domenico was refused entry
The rejection letter brutally declared: ‘While you’ve tried to follow Visitor Rules, they are for short stays of up to six months – not for repeated six–month periods interrupted by brief trips abroad.
‘I do not deem there to be any compelling or compassionate reasons to set aside the immigration rules in this case.’
Mary continued: ‘They said his “centre of life” is in the UK. But he’s got a son in Italy. We’ve got the contents of our house from Italy in storage in Rome. We’ve seen an apartment in Holland. Our intention is to return to Rome.
‘They wouldn’t listen. They just wouldn’t.’
Mary and Domenico were unceremoniously escorted back to France – but refused to go to Britain without him.
‘I’ve been by his side for nine years. The longest we’ve left each other is probably the three hours he was in the detention centre. What was I meant to do – leave him in the street in France without the car?’
The pair immediately returned to the Netherlands, where they have been staying in an Airbnb for 115 Euros (£101) a night.
They have since been told the Axel apartment is theirs, at least ensuring they will have somewhere to live. The irony is not lost in Mary, who met her future husband while running a homeless charity in Rome.
‘I phoned a Government–recommended immigration adviser, and his advice was: “You should have lied,”‘ she scoffs.
‘He said I should have lied and told them I was coming back in two weeks. There’s no way I would have ever followed that.’
She now fears Domenico has a ‘black mark’ against his name, which could make future visits difficult. The only viable option may be to pay up to £5,000 for a non–married partner residency visa, despite the fact he does not want to live in the UK.
It is endemic, she suggests, of the problems with the UK’s immigration system as a whole.
She concluded: ‘Why has England got an immigration problem? Because the people that are controlling it aren’t qualified enough, or capable of making the right decisions. It makes me angry. It’s made Domenico even more angry.
‘We don’t want to come back after this. The last thing he wants is to ever set foot in the UK again.’
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Border Force will fully consider evidence when deciding to refuse entry to the UK, as part of our work to maintain a fair and controlled immigration system.’
