Mother and baby stranded in Pakistan can now return to UK

A BRITISH resident who was refused a visa to return to London after she travelled to Pakistan to adopt a baby was on Monday granted permission to come back home.

Nina Salah, a Norwegian passport holder who has full UK residency rights, was refused to return home with baby Sofia three times. She has been stranded in Pakistan since February. Saleh said Sofia was refused a UK visa on the grounds that “adoptions that have taken place in Pakistan cannot be legally recognised in the UK.”

Salah was unable to adopt the child precisely because she had not yet returned to Britain.

Speaking from Karachi, where she has been renting a room, Saleh said media pressure was instrumental in getting the refusal overturned.

"I think it’s alarming how unprofessional the Home Office is. Since February they have stopped me from getting on with my life and I am left feeling still traumatised and highly vulnerable,” she was quoted as saying by the Guardian.

Describing her living conditions in Karachi as "unbearable," Salah said she had to survive without a fan in temperatures that can exceed 40 degrees.

“She’s seven months old, being confined to a room is not exactly the life I envisaged for her," Salah was quoted as saying by the Independent. "She has missed out on so much crucial development because we’ve been stuck here. How can I make her feel comfortable in an environment that is alien to me?” she said.

“She’s my first child, and I’m without family friends and a network in a foreign country. This is supposed to be the most joyous time of my life, with my baby, showing her precious moments to my family. Instead I’m alone and stressed beyond belief.”

Saleh expects to be home in the UK within two weeks.  Many of her family members who are in Norway are already on their way to London.