A heavily pregnant mother legally living and working in the UK fears the Home Office could try to separate her from her unborn baby after her husband and first child were sent “go home” letters.
Sachintha Warnakulasuriya lives in Scotland with her husband, Indika Kumara, and their six-year-old daughter, Heily. Warnakulasuriya, 36, has a visa permitting her to work in the UK as a care worker and is sponsored by her employer. Her husband, also 36, and daughter are legally entitled to live in the UK as her dependents.
The Guardian revealed earlier this month that under a new visa clampdown, children as young as five who live in the UK legally with their parents are being sent letters by the Home Office encouraging them to return to their countries of origin.
Warnakulasuriya qualified as a doctor in her home country of Sri Lanka and has three degrees. Her husband has an archaeology degree. Her pregnancy has been deemed high risk after she lost a baby in Sri Lanka and she is booked in for a planned caesarean section on 16 June at a local hospital.
“I was thinking that giving birth would be a happy and relaxed time for me. The medical team have tried to make me feel confident about giving birth after my previous experience of losing a baby,” said Warnakulasuriya.
“I saw the article in the Guardian about the family being sent ‘go home’ letters but never thought the same thing would happen to me. Then on 4 June we got a letter from the Home Office saying my husband and six-year-old daughter have to leave the UK but I can stay. I do not know what will happen to the baby.
“Now I am so stressed about everything. I do not know what we will do. We pay our taxes and do not take anything from the state. We are trying to contribute our services to the UK and do everything legally. We haven’t told my daughter what’s happening. She is so happy and settled here. She speaks English with a Scottish accent.”
In a separate case involving a Home Office letter being sent to a two-month-old baby seen by the Guardian, the letter was sent on 4 June and addressed the baby directly, rather than his parents.
It stated: “We have considered the information you have provided and are not satisfied you have raised compelling or compassionate grounds, which would warrant a grant of leave outside the rules. None of the grounds raised could be considered to be exceptional.”
The government began to clamp down on family visas for care workers after the Home Office estimated in 2023 that about 120,000 family members were in the UK, joining 100,000 care worker applicants.
Since March 2024, care workers have not been allowed to bring their partners or children with them to the UK, and a ban on the overseas recruitment of care workers was introduced from July 2025.
However, the children who were sent letters in recent weeks arrived in the UK before the various bans and restrictions came into force.
After the case of Rasika Samarasinghe, his wife, Chamila Dilrakshi, and their three children was first reported in the Guardian, the family’s constituency MP, Victoria Collins, is calling on the Home Office to reconsider the go home letters.
She said she received more than 40 emails in the space of 24 hours from constituents raising concerns about the family’s treatment after the Guardian article.
Collins, the MP for Harpenden and Berkhamsted, said: “It is appalling that my constituents Chamila, Rasika, and their three wonderful children, hardworking pillars of the community, are being separated so brutally by the Home Office. Chamila works as a teaching assistant and volunteers at the local church, Rasika works as a carer, and the three children are settled and thriving here.
“I have urgently raised this case directly with the Home Office minister and will continue to raise this issue with the government for this family and many others working hard for our communities.”
Naga Kandiah of MTC solicitors, representing the families, said: After more than two years of approving similar applications under the same rules, the Home Office appears to have abruptly changed course, refusing families without explanation.”
A government spokesperson said: “The government’s position has not changed. We will always welcome those that come to this country and contribute to our national life. But the privilege of living here for ever should be earned, not automatic.
“But between 2021 and 2024, this country experienced levels of migration it had historically not seen over four decades. We must be honest about the scale and impact of hundreds of thousands of low-skilled migrants getting settlement.
“The government will double the route to settlement from five to 10 years. As announced in November, we are consulting to apply this change to those in the UK today but have not received settled status. We are currently reviewing the 200,000 responses and will outline our response in due course.”
