UK Sikhs Defend Elderly Woman from Deportation: ‘We Are All Gurmit Kaur’

The case of an elderly Indian Sikh woman, first reported in 2019, continues to attract widespread community support in England's West Midlands. ‘Gurmit Kaur, 78, came to the UK in 2009 and Smethwick has been home to her ever since,’ reads an online petition that has attracted over 65,000 signatures since it was launched in July 2020. ‘Gurmit Kaur has no family to turn to in the UK and no family to return to in Panjab so the local Sikh community has adopted her. Gurmit is a kind woman. Even though she has nothing she is generous and will always give what she can, when she can. Most of her days are spent volunteering at the local Gurdwara.’ More recently, We Are All Gurmit Kaur has been trending on social media platforms as the local community continues to rally around the widow. Salman Mirza, an immigration advisor for the Brushstroke Community Project, started the petition and is among those helping Ms. Kaur through the visa appeals process. The UK Home Office maintains that Ms Kaur is in contact with people in her village in Punjab and that she would be able to re-adjust to life there. In another case, 33-year-old Sikh man Karanjeet Singh said police had taken no action after a group of troublemakers entered his store and one of them hit him on the head with a bottle. The CCTV captured the group entering his convenience store in Oldbury on 19 Jun. Singh said, the police ‘just gave me a crime reference number.’ (See SDW Vol. 1 Issue 10, Story 1).