麻豆社

Irene is 73. She has severe kidney failure. She is frail, and walks with a stick. And she may be about to be deported.

Grace Dent gets inside the complex deportation process with a family stuck right in the middle of it, through the highs and the lows, the emotional turmoil, the applications and appeals and the long monotonous waiting.

Grandmother Irene first came to the UK 4 years ago, in 2012, to visit her family. She travelled from South Africa on a 6 month tourist visa and settled in at the family home in North Bristol. Soon after arriving however she fell ill, was rushed to hospital, and was put on emergency dialysis for acute renal failure. This treatment is keeping her alive, and it is all being provided by the NHS. Her family are British. But Irene is not. So she is here illegally, and there's no guarantee she can stay.

This is the story of a short drive to a police station and a meeting with immigration officers, in which the future of a family hangs in the balance.

Produced in Bristol by Emily Knight.