A GRANDMOTHER who has been separated from her North-East family and is facing deportation has spoken of her plight from inside the walls of a detention centre.

Irene Clennell, 52, who has been married to a British man for 27 years, is being held in Scotland before she is sent back to Singapore.

Two weeks ago, she lived in County Durham, caring for her husband, John, but she was detained by immigration authorities during an appointment at a reporting centre in Middlesbrough.

She was not allowed to leave the office, contact her loved ones, collect her personal possessions and was held in at Middlesbrough Police station overnight.

The following day she was driven in a van for almost four hours to Dungavel House Removal Centre, in Lanarkshire, where she is being held in a dormitory with five other women.

Mrs Clennell, who has two British sons and a baby granddaughter, and lives in Ouston, near Chester-le-Street, said: “I feel I should not be here.

“I was married in this country and have two kids in this country. I have got a right to be in this country.

“They are taking that from me and treating me like a criminal.”

Mrs Clennell came to London in 1988 and married her husband, a former gas engineer, two year later.

She was given indefinite leave to remain in the UK, but has spent long periods back in Singapore caring for her elderly parents, which appear to have invalidated her residential status.

She now has no family or friends in Singapore, but is facing the prospect of being flown 7,000 miles away from the life the she has built in the region over the years.

Mrs Clennell, who has spent thousands of pounds on visa applications, does not think her family will be able to afford surety for any bail application and is hoping lawyers will be able to help her win an 11th hour reprieve.

She added: “This is stressing me out. I just want to go home. Everybody is on edge and no-one knows what is going happen.”

Mrs Clennell does not claim state benefits and is not allowed to work so is supported by her 50-year-old husband, who recently had a bypass operation following a blockage in his arteries, as well as treatment for a hernia.

He is not well enough to look after himself and she said her detention has left him vulnerable.

Mrs Clennell added: “My husband has paid all of the taxes and is not very well. He needs me to look after him.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We do not routinely comment on individual cases.”