'Let Bhavani live': 1.47L sign plea

The online petition was started to prevent deportation of Bhavani Espathi, patient of rare Crohn’s Disease, to India from UK; she claimed the immunosuppresant she requires is not available here

LONDON Thousands of people have signed an online petition calling on the UK Home Office to allow an Indian woman suffering from a rare disease stay in Britain.

The petition for Bhavani Espathi, who is seriously ill with Crohn's Disease, is edging close to its 1,50,000-signature target on Change.Org.

It was launched by the 31-year-old artist’s fiancé, Martin Mangler—a German national based in the UK as a volcanologist— in order to help with a Home Office review of the case.

The Londoner’s case came to light recently after it emerged that her application to stay in the UK on human rights grounds had been rejected.

“The doctors say she needs to stay here, but the Home Office want to deport her to India. They even threatened her with deportation whilst she was unconscious in coma,” noted Mangler’s petition titled ‘Let Bhavani Live’.

“Doctors say her life is at risk if she would be deported. This means the Home Office could be sending her to her death. The Home Office have admitted that she wouldn’t get as good care in India, and pointed out that she could get ‘palliative care’ instead,” it said. Crohn’s Disease is a digestive tract disorder for which Espathi requires a specific immunosuppressant, which she says is currently unavailable in India.

The Home Office has said that her case is being reviewed again after it was made aware of “fresh evidence” in March. “This cruel politics has to end, so that Bhavani can continue to get the care she desperately needs,” urges her fiancé’s petition, which has been signed by over 147,000 people.