‘Send the aeroplane to come and get us, Mummy’: The children barred from joining their mothers in Britain

Dozens of single women who came to work in the NHS and social care have been denied permission for their children to join them

Every day since arriving in Britain, Yvonne, a nurse in the NHS, has FaceTimed her two daughters back home in Zimbabwe. Often the calls end in tears. Other days, the younger girl, aged four, asks difficult questions like, When can you send the aeroplane to come and get us, Mummy?" It's heartbreaking," Yvonne says. I don't know what to do."

Yvonne is one of dozens of migrant women who have been refused permission for their children to join them in Britain. Despite current rules permitting healthcare workers to bring family members, single mothers, many of them recruited to work in the NHS and care sector, are routinely having their applications denied.