An eight‑year-old girl left destitute in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa has been barred from coming to the UK to join her parents. The girl, Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown, had been living with her grandmother after her mother moved to the UK to be with her British father. In April 2023 her mother, Kerrian Bigby, moved to the UK to join Lati‑Yana’s father, Jerome Hardy, leaving their daughter under her grandmother’s care. The couple married in 2025 and in June they applied for a settlement visa for their daughter, paying a £4,000 application fee.

When Hurricane Melissa struck and destroyed the family home in Cash Hill, Hanover, where Lati‑Yana and her grandmother lived, the parents appealed to the Home Office to expedite the visa on grounds that “an urgent situation had become an emergency”. The grandmother was no longer physically able to care for the child.

Nevertheless the Home Office rejected the application stating that although it acknowledged the effects of the natural disaster on the population of Jamaica, they remained satisfied that Lati‑Yana "continues to reside with family members" and that no concrete evidence had been submitted to prove that she could not be cared for by relatives in Jamaica.

The parents described the decision as devastating. Bigby said :

As her mother, being separated from my daughter is incredibly painful. I cannot sleep at night knowing she is far away and not receiving the care and support that every child needs. The emotional toll on both of us is significant. Reuniting with my daughter is not just a wish, it is a necessity for her development and my ability to fulfil my responsibilities as her mother. I am so distressed, I can’t eat or sleep.”

Their lawyer, Naga Kandiah of MTC Solicitors, accused the Home Office of a “troubling lack of compassion and understanding for a vulnerable young girl who is currently separated from her parents” and urged them to reconsider the decision and place Lati‑Yana’s welfare and best interests at the forefront.

The family intend to appeal but may face a wait of up to two years because of a backlog of 106,000 cases. About half of the visa fee, the NHS surcharge, may be refunded but the rest is non‑refundable, meaning the family will still need to pay thousands more to bring the appeal forward.

A Home Office spokesperson said all visa applications are considered individually in accordance with immigration rules.