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Victory for Surrey weekly in deportation row with Home Office

The Surrey Mirror is claiming victory after it battled to keep the Thai widow of a Reigate man in the UK after two snubs from the Home Office.

After eight weeks of campaigning, the Home Office made an astonishing U-turn granting Aranya Weller a two-year UK visa.

An official letter from the Home Office confirmed that the widow can live and work in the UK with the two-year-old daughter of her late husband Andy Weller.

The Surrey Mirror decided to take up the fight after Aranya was informed by the Home Office there were “no compelling or compassionate reasons” for her to remain in the UK following the death of her husband.

The paper’s Support Not Deport campaign, run by reporter Nev Wilson, was launched to prove there were plenty of “compelling” and “compassionate” reasons for her to remain.

The campaign took news staff to Number 10 Downing Street in March to hand over a 1,500-strong petition from readers.

Reporter Nev Wilson also travelled to the Home Office headquarters in Marsham Street, London to hand-deliver a letter for Jacqui Smith.

Nev said: “This is an incredible triumph for the Weller family who wanted nothing more than to see their son’s dream survive.

“Our victory has shown just what influence a local paper like the Surrey Mirror can have and is a credit our readers who showed an incredible strength of support.”

Andy Weller’s love for travel took him to Thailand in 2002 where he fell in love and aspired to become head teacher at a Bangkok kindergarten.

The former Reigate Priory School pupil died of a heart attack whilst teaching a class of four and five-year-olds on November 30 last year.

It was his dream to come to the UK with his wife of three and a half years and their daughter Jemima so she could have an English education and he could teach at his former school.

His grieving widow and their daughter came to the UK in December to be with his parents John and Terry Weller, in Reigate.