Islington News: Yigal Israel | Ruth Clarke | Home Office | Passport | Royal Mail

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

Islington Tribune - by SARA NEWMAN
Published: 1 August 2008

Yigal Israel and Ruth Clarke had to cancel plans for trip

Lost passports dash couple’s holiday hopes

Compensation demand as Home Office says it never received documents

A COUPLE are demanding thousands of pounds in compensation from the Home Office after their holiday plans were ruined when passports went missing
Yigal Israel, 35, and his wife Ruth Clarke, 28, had to cancel plans to visit his family in Israel in May.
Mr Israel, of Hilldrop Crescent, Holloway, submitted a permanent-leave-to-remain application in March. Three months later the Home Office claimed it never received the passports sent with the documents and had no record of the couple’s marriage.
Although the Home Office now accepts the couple are married, it denies having lost the documents. The Royal Mail also denies it is to blame. “First of all they said they never received the documents and, second, that I don’t exist,” said the Israeli-born market trader.
The couple have pursued the application from Croydon to Sheffield and Liverpool and back to Sheffield, only to be told they would have to apply for new passports and go through the same process again.
Mysteriously, when Mr Israel went to get a new passport he discovered his previously missing passport had been sent to the Israeli Embassy on April 2.
Mr Corbyn, Labour MP for Islington North, has written to the Home Office demanding compensation for Mr Israel and Ms Clarke, an art teacher. He said: “I suspect the Home Office just lost the passports. I hope to get it sorted out as quickly as possible because they seem like a lovely young couple and shouldn’t be put through all this stress.”
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said its records show the passports were delivered and signed for on receipt by the Home Office. A Home Office spokesman said: “We don’t comment on individual cases. We are committed to making sure our systems and processes to protect personal data are as good as they can be.”

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment: