The U.K.'s Home Office has rejected the visa application of an Iraqi nun who was displaced by the Islamic State and wanted to visit a sick family member in Britain.
Sister Ban Madleen, a Dominican nun who was driven out of her hometown of Qaraqosh in Iraq, had applied for a visa to visit her sick sister in the U.K., but the Home Office rejected her application even though she had visited the country in the past without any complications.
According to the Catholic Herald, the U.K. Visas and Immigration, a division of the Home Office, denied her visa application because she failed to disclose her salary as a kindergarten principal.
The immigration agency also contended that Madleen was not able to prove whether the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena would pay for her visit.
The rejection letter from the U.K. Visas and Immigration stated: "In relation to this decision there is no right of appeal or right to administrative review," the letter read, as reported by Catholic Herald.
The Home Office reportedly acknowledged that Madleen had been to the U.K. before and there were no problems with her past visit. But the department said that the nun obtained the visa seven years ago and went on to ask about her lack of recent visits to the U.K., according to the newspaper.
Fr. Benedict Kiely, founder of Christian charity Nasarean.org, decried the Home Office's reason for denying Madleen's visa, saying, "Do they not know what happened between 2014 and now?"
The priest noted that Madleen was not the first nun to encounter problems entering the U.K. The Home Office has reportedly twice denied the visa application of another Dominican nun who acquired a PhD in biblical theology from Oxford.
In May last year, the Home Office drew headlines after it denied entry to the first Arab female Christian pastor who wanted to attend a conference in Scotland.
Syrian-born Rev. Rola Sleiman was invited to attend the Church of Scotland's week-long General Assembly in Edinburgh, but the Home Office denied her visa because it was not satisfied that her visit would be financially supported by the Church.
After Sleiman's case drew considerable media attention, the Home Office decided to review her application and grant her the permission to enter the U.K.
A Home Office spokeswoman explained at the time that it reviews each application based on the evidence provided and in accordance with the U.K.'s immigration rules.
