London: A 37-year-old Indian historian, Manikarnika Dutta, who has lived in UK for over 10 years, is facing deportation. The Home Office ruled she had exceeded the permitted number of days abroad while conducting research in India, the Guardian reported.
Dutta, who has worked at prestigious UK institutions including the University of Oxford and the University of Bristol, has been denied indefinite leave to remain (ILR) due to her time spent outside the UK fulfilling academic obligations, the Hindustan Times reported.
She moved to the UK in 2012 to pursue a Master’s degree at the University of Oxford. Later, she secured a spouse visa as the dependent of her husband, Souvik Naha, a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow. According to UK immigration rules, applicants for ILR based on long residency must not have spent more than 548 days abroad over a ten-year period.
Dutta’s works required access to historical archives in India and thus she was reportedly away for 691 days.
“These research trips were not optional but essential to fulfilling her academic and institutional obligations,” Naga Kandiah, her legal representative at MTC Solicitors told The Guardian. “Had she not undertaken these trips, she would not have been able to complete her thesis or meet the academic requirements of her institutions,” the counsel added.
Her husband’s ILR application was approved, but hers was rejected. “You must now leave the United Kingdom. If you don’t leave voluntarily, you may be subject to a re-entry ban of 10 years and prosecuted for overstaying,” the Home Office ordered.