A FAMILY have spoken of their devastation after their beloved husband and father who lived and worked in the UK for 15 years was forbidden from re-entering the country due to an immigration rule change.

Daniel Botha, 53, who has six British children and was working full-time as a driver in Redcar, went back to his native South Africa for two weeks to see his ill father and attend a family wedding 18 months ago.

However, there had been a rule change the previous month which meant either he or his wife needed to be earning £18,600 to be granted leave to return to the UK.

Neither were earning the required amount of money and his wife, Julie, 49, a full-time mother to six children for many years, has been unable to secure a job paying that much.

His family, including his ten-year-old daughter, Jamie, have not seen him since. Mr Botha has secured work as a welder in a plastics factory in South Africa but his health has badly deteriorated due to chest and bronchial problems. He earns about £300 a month, and, living with a friend, cannot offer his family a home there.

The Bothas have raised more then £1,200 on the Gofundme crowd-funding website so far to pay for Home Office applications and legal costs.

They have already had one application for a work visa turned down.

However, they are hoping the Home Office will accept a new application, in which Mrs Botha's brother, who earns enough money, will act as a sponsor due to the special circumstances.

Mrs Botha, who lives with her 18, 16 and ten-year-old daughters in Redcar, was born in Grangetown, Middlesbrough, but her family emigrated to South Africa when she was 11, later moving to what is now Zimbabwe.

She met Mr Botha when she was 18 in Zimbabwe and the couple married in 1983. Mr Botha worked in various mining jobs in South Africa but the couple decided to move to the UK more than 16 years ago after Mr Botha's mother died.

Mrs Botha, who communicates with her husband via the mobile phone app WhatsApp and by email, said: "He has missed so much.

"There's been two funerals in the family and there was our daughter's 18th birthday, a school prom and soon it will be Jamie going to secondary school and my 50th.

"Two of our grandchildren were just six months when he left and they've grown so much. His health has got worse and, as time goes by, it will be harder and harder for him to get a job in his 50s when he gets back.

"He provided for us, it wasn't a lot, but we got by. He worked all the time he was here, paid his taxes and our children are all good, law-abiding citizens.

"I agree that there has to be rules on immigration. There has to be limits. But it doesn't seem fair that if he was from an EU country he could just come here even without a job or a British wife and family and without having contributed to this society for so many years."

Mrs Botha said her husband had kept in touch with the Home Office down the years and accepted there should have been an 'indefinite leave to remain stamp' in his passport, which he had failed to secure.

However, she said he had been assured at Heathrow Airport there would be no problem.

If the family's new visa application, which costs about £900 not including immigration officer advisor fees, fails they will have the chance to appeal and then take further legal action if they can find the money.

A spokeswoman from the Home Office said: "We do not routinely comment on individual cases.

"All applications are considered on their individual merits - including any compelling and compassionate circumstances - and in line with the immigration rules.”

Find out more about the Bothas' appeal at gofundme.com/bothafamily