Respected Sutton church minister Rev Wan Shin and family to be deported (From Surrey Comet)

Respected Sutton church minister Rev Wan Shin and family to be deported

6:50am Friday 5th February 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(7)

A respected church minister and his family are to be deported back to Korea within days, after a government minister ruled they could not stay.

Reverend Wan Shin, 45, who gives sermons at Holy Trinity Church in Sutton, said he was “devastated” to leave the community he has lived and served in for the last eight years.

His sons, Hyun, 19, a student at Overton Grange School, and Joon, a former Wallington Grammar School student, can speak minimal Korean and are worried about undergoing mandatory military service.

Wife Ju Young Kim, 45, who works at the Oasis restaurant at Trinity Church, is equally distraught.

Mr Shin’s appeals to stay were consistently rejected by Home Office officials, with a final appeal rejected by a High Court judge before Christmas.

A community campaign with a 175-strong petition, and intervention from Sutton and Cheam MP Paul Burstow, failed to convince Immigration Minister Phil Woolas to let them stay last week.

Rev Shin, an ordained minister of the conservative Korean Evangelical Holiness Church, now fears he will no longer be able to work in Korea, after his views were significantly liberalised since worshipping at Holy Trinity – a United Reformed Methodist Church.

He said: “We have been in shock, nobody is OK.

“In South Korea there is not as much freedom as there is here; the churches there are quite narrow-minded.

“I’m not sure if I can adapt myself back to it, but I have no other employable skills.”

Rev Shin originally came from Seoul to the UK on an educational visa, so he could study for a degree at the University of Wales.

When it expired, the family immediately began making an application for permanent residency, while Rev Shin continued to work voluntarily at Holy Trinity Church.

The judge in the review case said both children were over 18, and their age could not be legally regarded as grounds to stay.

He said: “I’m worried the Korean system won’t recognise my sons’ qualifications here and they will be left behind.”

MP for Sutton and Cheam Paul Burstow said: “I’m disappointed to get the news, and also to be the bearer of the bad news to the family, as I think they have a compelling case.”

Trinity Church Rev Martin Camroux said Rev Shin was a valuable asset to the church community and would have made a “real contribution to multicultural ministry”.

Tony Smith, Regional Director of the UK Border Agency in London and the South East said the immigration system was “humane and compassionate”.

He said: “We would much rather that those families with no right to be in the country left voluntarily.

“Where people refuse to leave, however, it is our responsibility to enforce the decisions of the courts and send them home.”

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(7)