Married Durham University Academics Face Deportation In Days 'As Punishment For Doing Their Jobs'

Two Durham University academics facing deportation to Mexico in a matter of days say they are being forced to leave the UK as punishment “for doing our jobs”. 

On Saturday, the Home Office gave anthropologist Dr Ernesto Schwartz-Marín and Dr Arely Cruz-Santiago, a human geographer, two weeks to leave the country with their 11-year-old daughter after their appeal to stay was rejected.

The couple spent nine months in Mexico between 2014 and 2015 after they were given a grant by the government-funded Economic and Social Research Council, where they developed a DNA database to help record the thousands of people who are missing as a result of the country’s war on drugs.

But the Home Office has rejected Schwartz-Marín’s application for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK, arguing he spent too much time outside of the country during his visa period. 

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