1:21pm Friday 16th May 2008
ARNEL Cabrera could be allowed to return to the UK with his son if last-ditch talks are successful.
The 38-year-old boarded a flight back to the Philippines on Tuesday, but behind the scenes there has been a furious last-minute drive to over-turn a Home Office decision to reject his visa application.
Anne Snelgrove, the South Swindon MP, held a two-hour meeting on Tuesday night with Home Office minister Liam Byrne to try to overturn the decision.
She said the minister was sympathetic to Arnel's plight and was seriously considering the arguments put forward.
She said: "We have put a different and more compelling reason to the minister for Arnel to remain here.
"The crux of the matter is that Mr Cabrera would have had the right to remain in this country if his wife had lived.
"The deal was that after five years of service as a nurse Mrs Cabrera would have been allowed to stay and so would her family.
"That is where we have let Arnel down badly - by saying that because his wife died he now has to leave the country.
"I think we put forward a very strong case and I hope the minister is sympathetic to that."
Mrs Snelgrove said the argument previously pursued by lawyers acting for Mr Cabrera had been a "bit of a dead end".
The appeal turned down by the Home Office had centred around article eight of the Human Rights Act, which offers protection for a person's private and family life.
Mrs Snelgrove believes the fact that Arnel has now returned to the Philippines will not harm the appeal.
She said: "At this stage it is immaterial if Arnel is in the country or not because if the appeal is successful he can apply for a visa from the Philippines.
"For now it's important that he is with his son to celebrate his birthday then, hopefully, they can both come back to the UK."
Arnel, who himself worked at the GWH as an assistant technical officer, has always maintained that it had been his wife's wish to raise their son in Swindon.
Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust admitted liability for Mayra being administered Bupivacaine intravenously in May 2004. She died just an hour after giving birth to the couple's son Zac at the Great Western Hospital.
She suffered a heart attack, which a post-mortem later confirmed had been caused by drug toxicity.
Arnel, who had been living with friends in Eldene following the inquest into his wife's death, had given the Home Office a deadline of Wednesday to allow him to stay.
He decided to leave quietly on Tuesday to go back to the Philippines to celebrate Zac's fourth birthday.
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