A teacher from Sierra Leone has spent 28 years battling the Home Office for permission to remain in the UK, even though lawyers say he has had a legal right to be in the country from the start. Osman Bash Taqi, 55, known as Ossie, has found himself in an extraordinary catch-22 scenario which has spanned six governments, from John Major to Boris Johnson, and seen the immigration goalposts moved more times than he can count. The key obstacle for Taqi being granted leave is his failure to produce his Sierra Leone passport. He has been unable to produce it because the Home Office lost it. Initially the Home Office denied ever having it but a recent letter from a Home Office official confirms they have a record of his passport. “Having had a look through Mr Taqi’s records it appears that we have seen a passport issued in 1993,” the Home Office letter to his MP, Toby Perkins, states. In November 2018 an immigration judge ruled that his passport was in possession of the Home Office. Taqi arrived in the UK in December 1992 for the wedding of his sister shortly after the outbreak of civil war in his home country. The situation there deteriorated to the point where it was unsafe for him to return. He made various applications for leave to remain which the Home Office refused although it was accepted that it was too dangerous for Sierra Leonians to return home while the civil war was raging. He began a relationship with an Italian woman and the couple moved in together in 1998 and went on to have three children: Felan, 20, Kai, 18 and Naeem, 14. Felan was offered a place at Oxford University to study maths and engineering but after a year there had to abandon his studies because of the trauma and depression his father’s immigration situation caused him. The couple decided to marry in 2010 but he was told he could not marry without Home Office permission and needed to submit his passport. He was not given permission to marry by the Home Office and his passport was not returned to him. He then made an application for leave to remain in September 2015 based on having an EU partner but this was unsuccessful due to his missing passport. The Home Office also questioned the genuineness of his relationship with his partner despite their years together and their three children. When the Home Office refused his application he was denied a right of appeal. By the time he did get a chance to go back to court, in 2018, his 20-year relationship with his partner had broken down due to the years of stress of trying to secure his immigration status and his inability to work due to Home Office rules. “Our children are all AA students but the situation with the Home Office has affected all of us dramatically. It has destroyed our family unit,” said Taqi. “I no longer know how sane I am. I cannot eat, I cannot talk, I cannot sleep. I’m raging against the injustice of all this. The situation has devastated my whole family. I’m trying to hang on for the sake of my children.” His solicitor, Louis MacWilliam, of Truth Legal Solicitors said that when he first met Taqi he assumed that given his length of residence in the UK and his three Italian children he must be hiding something serious from his past. “He was not. It became clear he has suffered from a harsh system of rules that are forever changing,” said MacWilliam. “Ossie’s case is deeply troubling. He has had a clear legal basis to stay for many years. I hope someone at the Home Office shows some humanity and quickly resolves his case.” His most recent application for leave to remain is under the EU settlement scheme as a dependent parent of his EU children. Again the Home Office initially refused his application due to him not having his passport. In June 2019 he was given permission to make an application by post. In October 2019 the Home Office changed the rules again saying that for parents of EU citizens dependency was no longer a given. He does not know if that rule change and his lack of a passport will again stand in his way. He continues to wait for a decision. A Home Office spokesperson said: “All applications are considered on a case-by-case basis in line with the immigration rules and this has been no different for Mr Taqi.”