Dr Paul Hamilton Released

We are happy to confirm that Dr Paul Hamilton was released a few hours ago, on Wednesday afternoon 27 January 2016, from the Morton Hall Immigration Removal Centre and headed home to Stratford-upon-Avon to recuperate and prepare his journey to the United States after 10 days of detainment.

Despite this positive turn of events, this case raises serious issues about the status of many non-EU professionals and students and how the Home Office deals with them. An open letter will be published tomorrow in The Times airing these concerns signed by fellow scholars. [The letter in full.]

On behalf of Paul and his friends and collaborators here at Kingston Shakespeare, a heartfelt thank you for the overwhelming support everyone has shown. The great variety of people who supported Timo Uotinen’s piece (names are still being added) demonstrates the importance of having a clear, transparent, fair and humane immigration system. Paul is lucky to have had so much support but there are many who are not in such a fortunate position. The story will not end here…

Here are links to articles on this case:

• Times Higher Education: US PhD graduate detained in UK immigration removal centre
• politics.co.uk: Arrested, humiliated, detained: How Britain treats foreign students
• Buzzfeed News: American Shakespeare Scholar Held In A British Detention Centre Released
• The Times: US scholar locked up for ten days in visa extension row
• Independent: American Shakespeare expert Paul Hamilton arrested pending deportation from UK
• Daily Mail: American Shakespeare expert who was arrested and detained for ten days without warning as an ‘illegal immigrant’ after nine years in Britain to be freed today but still faces deportation
• Channel 4 interview [Note: Despite the interviewer’s insistence, Paul had not overstayed. What is not mentioned is that if you have an application in with the Home Office, your leave to remain goes into suspension. Paul was not here illegally.]
• LRB blog post Immigration Scandals by Ben Jackson mentions Paul’s case
• Independent: American Shakespeare expert Paul Hamilton attacks ‘brazen, unapologetic and cynical’ Home Office following arrest
• Birmingham Mail: Cabinet minister says police were right to arrest academic over immigration status
• Surrey Comet: American scholar Dr Paul Hamilton has Kingston University [dreams] ruined[,] dashed after immigration arrest, despite being in the UK legally
• Times Higher Education: Paul Hamilton case: UK must not drive away overseas PhD students
  

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  A comment from Timo Uotinen on the media hurly burly: “There seems to be some kind of misapprehension amongst some journalists and politicians that Paul Hamilton’s situation was about overstaying his visa. He did not. He followed procedure and applied within his student visa and was thus allowed to remain in the country until a decision was made on his application. Read the government info on this.”

  

  This screen capture is from http://www.gov.uk/tier-4-general-visa/extend-your-visa