Waiting at the Gates
Mr Ahmed lives and works here in Britain. His wife, with a young son he has never seen, lives in Pakistan and for two years she has been trying to join her husband, without success. She has every legal right to be with him but, like hundreds of other Pakistani dependants, she must first convince the British immigration officers at Islamabad. And that can take up to four years of uncertainty and suffering.
Tonight, Robert MacNeil reports from Pakistan on those who wait, who regard our official guardians at the gates' as petty, spiteful bureaucrats defying the spirit, if not the letter of our Immigration Laws.
Presented by DAVID DIMBLEBY
Producer DAVID GERRARD
Editor FRANK SMITH
Bureau of separations: page 4