A trainee GP facing deportation yesterday said he has been ‘very heartened’ after being inundated with support from fellow doctors, MPs and the public.
Dr Luke Ong, whose case was raised by the Daily Mail, said he lives in fear of a knock at the door and removal.
He said he had become ‘so paranoid’ that he has abandoned his Manchester apartment and is staying with friends.
Officials want to kick him out because he was a few days late renewing a visa.
Luke Ong, 31, who is living in Manchester, appealed against the Home Office decision and an immigration judge ruled it ‘would not be proportionate’ to remove him
The British Medical Association and Royal College of GPs reacted with fury to the British-qualified doctor’s ‘utterly incomprehensible’ treatment.
More than 40,000 people have signed a petition in his support. The Royal College and his MP, Lucy Powell, have both written to Home Secretary Amber Rudd. Manchester mayor and former health secretary Andy Burnham has also backed him.
Dr Ong, who has been training to become a GP in Manchester for three years, said: ‘The response from everyone has been astounding. I’m really grateful to the Mail for standing up for me, and the support as a whole has given me the strength to carry on. It is very heartening.’
He said his treatment by immigration officials was ‘purgatory’.
Dr Ong only made the formal application for ‘indefinite leave to remain’ in the UK 18 days after the deadline, making him in breach of immigration law
Dr Ong is from Singapore and has been in the UK since beginning his degree in medicine at Manchester University in 2007. He said his battle to stay over the last seven months has been incredibly stressful and a drain financially because he has not been able to work.
He has spent his time doing voluntary work.
He insists his failure to contact immigration officials until last July, a month before his visa was due to expire was an ‘honest oversight’. He was not given an appointment until September – and then told to leave.
He won an initial appeal but the Home Office is now appealing to a higher tribunal.
Dr Chaand Nagpaul of the BMA said: ‘This situation beggars belief at a time when the Government is prepared to spend millions recruiting GPs from abroad.’
Helen Stokes-Lampard of the Royal College of GPs said: ‘It makes absolutely no sense that a GP trainee who has studied medicine here – at great national investment – is being pushed out.’
The Home Office has said it would be ‘inappropriate’ to comment.