Immigration gardaí questioned woman after husband’s cancer death

A ZIMBABWEAN woman, whose mother and mother-in-law were denied extensions on their holiday visas so they could help care for her dying husband, was visited by Garda immigration officers in January checking if she was hiding the women in her home.

Melody Chinenyanga, a librarian living and working in Dublin, lost her husband Taurai to a rare form of cancer last November but says she was visited by the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) this January, demanding to know if the women were still in the house.

In April last year the Irish Examiner revealed how the couple had invited their mothers to Ireland to help care for Mr Chinenyanga as he underwent chemotherapy. They asked the Department of Justice and the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service for visa extensions.