When Vaseeharan Lux Rajagopal first came to the UK in 2022, he was ready to dedicate the rest of his career to the NHS and start a new life with his wife and two children.

Native Sri Lankans, Dr Rajagopal and his wife Prabodhya Wijetunge settled on the UK as the location of their family’s new home believing it to be a place where stability and opportunity would give all of them the chance to lead their ideal lives.

Tragically, this dream was cut short two years later when BMA member Dr Rajagopal, who had been working as a specialist in geriatric medicine in Kent, lost his life following his battle with pancreatic cancer.

The devasting effect of her husband’s death, however, has sadly proved to be only the beginning of another ordeal for Ms Wijetunge and her two young sons.

Having come to the UK as dependants on her late husband’s visa, Ms Wijetunge twice wrote to the Home Office following his passing asking to be granted leave to remain on compassionate grounds, only for her requests to be rejected.

For more than a year, Ms Wijetunge and her children’s lives have been in limbo and they face an uncertain future and continuing legal battle to secure their right to remain in the UK.

Speaking to The Doctor on her late husband’s birthday, Ms Wijetunge told of how her family’s grief and uncertainty with their future in the UK had taken an enormous emotional toll on her.

‘Every day, I’m suffering,’ she says.

‘I’m taking medication for depression and I have to see a physio because of tension in my shoulders – and I am still receiving grief counselling.

‘We are not refugees. We are not criminals. I lost my husband and now these are the circumstances we are facing. I don’t know why the Home Office is treating us like this.’

Ms Wijetunge’s first application for leave to remain was refused last March with a second application also rejected two months later. A judge granted her permission to seek judicial review of the Home Office’s position in December.

Rather than seeking to defend its position before a judge, the Home Office agreed last month to withdraw and remake the refusals. They have now refused them leave to remain again, with a right of appeal.  

The family has already suffered nearly a year with no immigration status on top of their bereavement. It is likely the appeal will take nearly another year to resolve. 

Ms Wijetunge’s right to work and provide for her sons would usually have continued during an appeals process but the Home Office took the position that there was ‘no merit’ in her application, despite the family’s tragic circumstances.

That harsh position left Ms Wijetunge with no immigration status at all in the UK, until the Home Office backed down in response to her judicial review and finally granted her a right of appeal. This caused her immense hardship as she could not earn a living for her family. 

The family’s situation has seen the association intercede on their behalf, with BMA council chair Tom Dolphin last month writing to UK visas and immigration director general Paul Morrison.

He wrote: ‘We know that international doctors carry a profound sense of responsibility – not only for the patients they treat but also for the wellbeing and security of their families whose immigration status is often dependent on theirs.

‘This prolonged and distressing ordeal has taken an enormous emotional toll on Ms Wijetunge. While grieving the loss of her husband, she is also solely responsible for caring for her young sons, who are settled and thriving in their school community here.

‘She has described the process as lacking compassion and humanity and she has been forced to navigate repeated, costly applications during a period of deep emotional and financial strain. Unable to work, her resources are rapidly depleting.’

He added: ‘This case is a clear example of the vulnerability faced by the families of international doctors – individuals who come to the UK in good faith, often at immense personal sacrifice. Their situation highlights an urgent need to ensure no family already enduring the loss of a loved one is left in such legal and emotional limbo.’

In his letter, Dr Dolphin points to a legal provision established during the pandemic, in which the relatives of international medical graduate doctors who had lost their lives to COVID-19 were given leave to remain in the UK on compassionate grounds.

He urged the Home Office to extend this arrangement, arguing that doing so would help to protect vulnerable family members bereaved of their loved ones.

He wrote: ‘During the COVID-19 pandemic, we welcomed the Home Office’s compassionate decision to grant indefinite leave to remain to the dependants of international doctors who tragically lost their lives while serving the NHS.

‘However, outside of that specific concession, there are still no automatic protections for the dependants of international doctors who die while working in the UK, leaving grieving families vulnerable at a time of immense personal crisis.’

He added: ‘We are grateful to the Home Office for agreeing to review this case and ask that it be expedited and that discretion be exercised to grant Ms Wijetunge and her children indefinite leave to remain, allowing them the stability and security they need to rebuild their lives in the UK.

‘We also urge the Home Office to ensure that protections are available to the families of international doctors who tragically lose their lives while serving our health system.’

Ms Wijetunge’s wish to remain in the UK is in large part owed to her family already feeling settled here, with her sons happy at their local primary school.

Her determination to not return to Sri Lanka also stems from complex and painful cultural reasons relating to her relationship with her late husband and the painful legacy of Sri Lanka’s 25-year-long civil war.

‘My husband was a Tamil, Hindu, and I’m a Sinhalese Buddhist,’ explains Ms Wijetunge.

‘We don’t have a war [in Sri Lanka] but the discrimination and the racism are still there.’

‘We selected the UK because we thought that our boys can have a good future and grow up without any barriers or stigma because of their parents’ mixed marriage.’

Despite being educated to postgraduate level, Ms Wijetunge was left unable to work or claim benefits in the UK because the Home Office’s position that her claim was ‘totally without merit’ blocked any right of appeal, forcing the family to rely on the proceeds of Dr Rajagopal’s pension.

When not looking after her two sons, Ms Wijetunge uses her time positively by working as a volunteer but admits she and her children are still coming to terms with the loss of a father and husband.

She says: ‘The boys say all the time that they don’t want to go back to Sri Lanka because they feel they are British, and that this is their Dada’s country. They think their Dada is still here.

‘They still can’t quite understand that their Dada is not coming back. They are waiting for their Dada to come back.

‘They don’t want to move to another house because their thought is, “this is Dada’s house, if we move, he won’t be able to find us”.’

The BMA continues to support Ms Wijetunge and her family.