Transsexual partner of UK citizen to be deported

Source: Derby Telegraph - 8 Feb

A caretaker who married a transsexual has been transferred from the school he was working at following complaints from parents.

Ian Young worked at St Chad's Infants school for more than two years, but has been switched to a junior school after parents said they were "very uncomfortable" about his relationship with Malaysian bride Fatine.

In another blow for the couple, who are fighting to win permission for Fatine to remain in the country, she has been told she has exhausted all final visa appeals.

They plan to mount one last bid to win consent for her to stay as an asylum seeker. So far the applications have cost them £8,000.

Fatine, 36, has been sent death threats from her native Malaysia, where same-sex marriages are against the law.

Their story was first told in the Derby Telegraph in November.

St Chad's head teacher, Maxine Ball, said: "There was a lot of adverse publicity, making it very uncomfortable for some parents.

"The fact it was in the newspaper, then in the national news, made parents very unhappy about parts of his personal life being made public – with the school name attached to it."

Despite the move, she said many parents and staff had been supportive of Ian and Fatine.

Derby City Council was asked to move him to another school, which it has now done. The 30-year-old, of Spondon, said he was initially told that moving to the junior school, also in Derby, was for his own safety.

A council spokesman said Mr Young had been moved after a request by the school. "Following consultation, Mr Young agreed to a transfer," they added.

However, Mr Young claimed he did not have much of a choice.

He said: "The council told me I was not to go back. I had my keys taken off me. I didn't understand why it was happening, I'd had lots of support from the staff."

Fatine, who was born Mohammed Fazdil Min Bahari, has had two applications for a visa to stay turned down. A Facebook group was set up in support of her bid to stay, but she received death threats on the internet site from strangers in Malaysia.

The Home Office, however, has once again told her she must return home. It said it could not comment on the case at the moment.

Matthew Coats, head of immigration for the border agency, said: "The rules are absolutely clear, a visitor must leave the UK within six months but may reapply for a new visa from their country of origin."

The couple met in Kuala Lumpur in 2006, when Ian was working in the country. Ian was born in Derby and went to Chellaston School.

In December, he arranged for Fatine to come over to the UK on a visitor's visa, for what was at first intended to be a holiday.

But a month into Fatine's visit, Ian proposed and they applied to the Home Office for a certificate to marry in a civil service at Derby Register Office, granted in June.

She applied for a visa this latest time appealing to stay under the Human Rights Act and the right to a family life.

Ian said the third rejection meant the couple had only one option left, to apply for asylum due to the fact she could be persecuted in her home country.

He said: "Fatine has been told that, if she goes back home, she will be arrested under Sharia law."

• I fell for the woman of my dreams... and she turned out to be a he