Thousands sign petition calling for elderly Sikh woman to be allowed to stay in the UK

More than thirty thousand people have signed a petition calling for a 75-year-old woman who fears being deported, to be allowed to stay indefinitely.

Gurmit Kaur is well known in the Sikh community in Smethwick where she's lived for more than 10 years. 

She has previously been told by the Home Office that she must leave voluntarily or be made to return to India where she has no family.

She has no visa and is classed as an undocumented migrant. 

The campaign #WeAreAllGurmit is asking that she is granted indefinite leave to remain. 

In 2013 Gurmit received a letter from the Home Office telling her that she should leave voluntarily or face deportation. 

Campaigners say she has fallen victim to so called hostile environment measures put in place by successive governments to clamp down on illegal immigration.

The Home Office says Gurmit Kaur has made no attempt to regularise her stay or voluntarily leave the country since 2010.

On Tuesday (21st July) the Home Secretary said that she will be evaluating the hostile environment policy. 

Campaigner Salman Mirza says that Gurmit's case needs to be looked as it 'shouts that she needs to stay'.