THE father of a Scotswoman whose husband is trapped in Syria has criticised the Home Office for not doing enough to help those who have spouses trapped in war zones.
Professor William Gilmore's daughter Christine is married to Ziad Arabi-Katbi and awaiting a Home Office decision on his visa to come to the UK.
He is currently stranded in Damascus while the British Embassy in Amman holds his passport as they review his application.
Yesterday Foreign Secretary William Hague held talks with American Secretary of State John Kerry, who described the use of chemical weapons in Syria as a "humanitarian catastrophe of global proportions".
However Professor Gilmore has spoken out about the "lack of joined up thinking" by the UK Government, particularly the Home Office's "business-as-usual response".
He said: "It seems in the Home Office to be business as usual. It makes me surprised and disappointed.
"There must be at least a minimum moral duty of care towards the spouses - no doubt there are other categories of people one could talk about - but at least the spouses of British citizens."
PhD student Ms Gilmore, 33, met her husband in Damascus in 2010 when she was studying. They travelled to Beirut in December last year to marry and Mr Arabi-Katbi applied for settlement in the UK.
The application was halted when her husband's lawyer was killed in a car bomb and papers went astray amid the civil unrest.
The initial application was rejected, and Ms Gilmore's father said the couple then took legal advice to submit a new application, rather than appeal, because it would be quicker. Mr Arabi-Katbi has been waiting for seven weeks and his case is undergoing a "process of review" and is "within the published target processing time".
A Home Office spokeswoman said:"Mr Arabi Katbi's original application was refused in May because he did not supply the necessary evidence to support his application. He did not exercise his right of appeal.
"A fresh application was submitted in July and this application is currently being processed."
International news: Page 12
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article