Academic who travels the world as government adviser set to be deported - because she is out of the country too much to get a visa
- Dr Miwa Hirono has been a lecturer at University of Nottingham for 7 years
- She is originally from Japan and her research is famous around the world
- In 2010 she spent around 200 days abroad on a humanitarian operation
- Law made in 2012 denies migrant visas to those out UK for over 180 days
- Rule to be applied retrospectively so it takes her previous trip into account
- Despite working for a Government-funded group, she must leave Britain
- She believes inflexibility will stop top professionals wanting to work in UK
A high-flying academic who travels the world as a Government adviser is set to be deported from Britain under 'barmy' new visa laws - because she is out of the country more than 180 days a year.
Dr Miwa Hirono, 38, is originally from Japan but has been living in the UK since becoming a lecturer at the University of Nottingham seven years ago.
The world-renowned academic's work - which helps the UK Government to set foreign policy - requires her to spend long spells working in China and Africa.
Set to be deported: Miwa Hirono with her husband, Peter Trebilco, 61, and one-year-old son Tada, must leave Britain under 'barmy' new visa laws
In 2009 and 2010 she spent around 200 days abroad researching China's foreign peacekeeping and humanitarian operations.
But Home Office immigration laws now state that people working in the UK on a migrant visa cannot be out of the country for more than 180 days each year.
And despite the fact Dr Hirono does research for a Government-funded organisation and her baby son was born in Britain, the Home Office has decided to deport her.
Her university colleagues have slammed the decision as 'vindictive and bone-headed' but the Home Office has refused to back down.
Today, Dr Hirono, who lives in Beeston, Notts., with her husband Peter Trebilco, 61, and their one-year-old son Tada, said: 'It came as a massive, utter shock.
'My Australian husband quit his job to join me in the UK as a family. I bought a house in Beeston two years ago and gave birth to my son here.
'I have my life here, everything is here but I have to give up everything.
Battle: Dr Hirono's university colleagues have slammed the decision as 'vindictive and bone-headed'
'It is idiocy.
The Government funded my research and now they are penalising me for hard work and contributing to their policies.
'I have one published paper which is uploaded on the UK embassy in Beijing's website. They changed the visa rule in 2012 and have applied it retrospectively to my travel in 2009 and 2010.
'What has happened to me is absolutely wrong and everyone understands my point except the Home Office.
'I thought this was a democratic country with natural justice but it doesn't seem that way.'
Dr Hirono, an expert in international relations, has decided not to appeal the decision because the cost of the process would make it 'impractical'.
Instead she has taken a job at a university in Kyoto, Japan, and the family are leaving the UK on March 29.
Her husband Peter said the Home Office decision has caused the family to uproot their whole life.
Left with no choice: Dr Hirono, an expert in international relations, has decided not to appeal the decision because the cost of the process would make it 'impractical'
He added: 'It tears at your heart because we've gone to great lengths to make good friends in the neighbourhood and we're very supportive and contribute to the community.
'We're having to tear our son out of nursery, give up a home we've established, with neighbours we're very fond of, and none of that is our doing.
'It's an inflexibility - the law does not have the capacity to deal with individual situations. It's our whole life.'
Dr Hirono came to the University of Nottingham in 2008 on a prestigious five-year Research Council UK fellowship, which then became a permanent role.
But when applying to extend her visa last March, she was banned and told she would be deported because of the foreign travel aspect of her job.
University bosses even wrote to the Home Office to tell officials that the trips were part of her job.
In December, Dr Hirono won an appeal against the Home Office with a judge suggesting it would not be in the national interest to deport someone who had 'made a significant and profound contribution to the academic framework of higher education in this country'.
But that ruling was later overturned and immigration bosses confiscated the family's passports a year ago.
Professor Mathew Humphrey said Dr Hirono's research had had a significant impact on policy towards China, including on the UK's co-operation programme with the country.
Unsympathetic: Government officials told her she could keep in touch with friends in the UK via skype after ruling her private life should be given 'little weight'
Philip Cowley, professor of parliamentary government at the university, said: 'It is pure madness for the government to be driving out an expert on what is probably the most important foreign policy challenge of the next decade.
'Both from a human perspective and from the interests of the UK, this is indefensible.'
Dr Hirono's local MP, Anna Soubry, even wrote to Home Secretary Theresa May asking her to consider the decision, but no action was taken.
A Home Office spokesperson said: 'Ms Hirono's application for indefinite leave to remain was refused in July 2014 because she had spent more than 180 days outside the UK.'
Government officials told her she could keep in touch with friends in the UK via skype after ruling her private life should be given 'little weight'.
Dr Hirono said she believes her case will have a wider impact on the UK's ability to hire foreign professionals.
She added: 'This could mean the UK loses its capacity to hire any foreign professional on a permanent basis.
'Who would want to stop their live elsewhere and move everything to the UK only to be kicked out after five years.'
Source: the Mail
