Tory Britain's Heartless Xenophobia Reaches New Depths

Last October we reported that Canadians Jason and Christy Zielsdorf had been living in Scotland for eight years, quite legally and several of their children were born there. After studying theology at St Andrews, Jason decided to stay on. Armed with an entrepreneur visa, two years ago he bought the general store and bothy in the small Highland village of Laggan.

The premises had been empty for 18 months, because there is not a rich living in providing this community service. The Zielsdorfs reckoned that by investing in the accommodation and opening a coffee shop they could make a go of it and cater not just for locals but the passing hillwalkers.
Last June the Zielsdorf family were threatened with deportation. Today, they still await the imminent arrival of the border force to deport them from the UK. Their general store, accommodation and coffee shop is still for sale.
Ex British ambassador Craig Murray wrote the article and finished it by saying – “The truth is, having set arbitrary numerical limits on net immigration, if the Home office deports the Zielsdorf family that reduces net immigration by seven – and they are low-hanging fruit, easy to find, not able to disappear and defenceless. Their plight is Tory Britain’s heartless xenophobia in action.”
 
 
And yet, we still find this spiteful decision-making persists in the communities of Britain.
In another case, a very well regarded shop worker from Kentish Town in London who has lived in Britain for 27 years has been detained by immigration officers and is facing deportation within days.

Stojan Jankovic, known as Stoly locally arrived in the UK in 1991 after the Yugoslav Wars. At the conclusion of the wars hundreds of thousands relocated for safety. Some 250,000 fled fearing revenge, and due to severe violence and terrorist attacks against civilians, many permanently emigrated and never returned.

Stoly was from what was the former Republic of Yugoslavia. Former UN secretary general Kofi Anan, called the Yugoslav Wars the worst war crime in Europe since 1945.

Stoly applied for political asylum upon arrival in the UK, but it is understood this was rejected and his leave to remain technically ended in 1999. However, Stoly found work and rebuilt his life and never returned home. The government here clearly welcomed him paying his taxes and national insurance for the past 15 years without any objection from the Home Office.

Last Thursday he attended a monthly meeting to “sign on” at a immigration reporting centre in London Bridge and was without warning arrested.

John Grayson, Stoly’s employer for the last 15 years said “He’s done that (signed on at immigration) once a month for ten years, just so they know where he is. Yesterday, with no warning, they didn’t let him go and bundled him into a back of a van. It was totally out of the blue, from his point of view and ours.”

Mr Jankovic is now understood to be at the Verne Immigration Removal Centre – a former fortress and prison in the Isle of Portland, Dorset.

Asked what what lay behind the Home Office’s sudden change in approach, Mr Grayson said: “The Tories took over, that’s what’s happened. Discretion has gone out the window and the Home Office can do whatever they want.”

A very familiar face in the Earth Natural Foods shop in Kentish Town Road, Grayson went on to say – “This has been his home and his work and his community for the last 27 years. He’s known to hundreds if not thousands of people in Kentish Town as the bloke with a beard that serves in our shop. He’s kindly, avuncular, cheerful, reliable,” adding: “I don’t think he’s had a day off sick in the 15 years he’s worked for us”.

The Camden New Journal reported that Anne Hall, a customer who had known Mr Jankovic for 15 years, said: “He was very special. He was always so lovely. He is a very educated, peace-loving man.  I just can’t believe it, I think we’re becoming a police state.”

The area that Stoly is from no longer exists – it is now Serbian. He has never been Serbian and has never been the beneficiary of a Serbian passport. Consequently, he has no right to live in Serbia and Britain has effectively made him ‘stateless’.

Mr Grayson has been able to speak to Mr Jankovic who said with some irony he was in “relatively good spirits, because he is an optimistic, peace-loving guy” adding: “He is a true Brit, basically. Stiff upper lip.”

This is another example of an utterly heartless and unthinking campaign to escalate previous failings of immigration policy by capturing and arresting the least harmful, most productive law-abiding individuals who have, to all intents been forced from their home country by war. In seeking sanctuary, the government accepts his tax payments and therefore work status and he legally makes his whereabout known every month to the authorities for ten years only to be arrested, imprisoned and thrown out the country without warning with no country he can call home either personally or technically.

The result is that Stoly now faces the stark realisation that he is not recognised as a citizen of any country, anywhere.

A petition has been set up calling for the government to “stop the shameful deportation“.

(Main Image Camden New Journal)

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