Scotland star threatened with deportation 'halfway through 22 years of service to Queen and Country'
“I grant you 28 days leave to remain in the United Kingdom without permission to work or recourse to public funds. This leave expires of February 4th 2022.”
A standard Home Office letter landed on the doormat of a family home in Inverness during mid-January. Nothing remarkable in that you might think – even given that the recipient was former Scotland Sevens star Junior Bulumakau plus his Scottish-born wife Heather and children Roana and Noah.
What made this incident somewhere between unfortunate and outrageous depending on your viewpoint, is that the 30-year-old Fijian-born winger in his professional capacity is and will -promotion depending – for the next decade be Private Bulumakau of 3rd Battalion, Royal Scots Borderers, The Black Watch.
Bulumakau is 12 years into a 22-year military career, and as a result was more than a little surprised to receive a letter which the Home Office subsequently described as “an admin error.”
“A nice letter to receive on a Friday afternoon,” he Tweeted. “Home Office kicking me out of the country in the next few weeks without any prior warning. I’ve only lived here since I was eight and am halfway through my 22 years in the Army. Wouldn’t mind a holiday to Fiji anyway!”
A nice letter to receive on a Friday afternoon. Home Office kicking me out of the country in the next few weeks without any prior warning. I’ve only lived here since I was 8 & half way through my 22 years in the Army.
Wouldn’t mind a holiday to Fiji anyway! pic.twitter.com/z2emZcvw00— Junior Bulumakau (@JuniorBulumakau) January 14, 2022
In addition to thrilling rugby fans in the English Championship, the former Doncaster and Coventry winger in 2015 scored a hat-trick and was named man-of-the-match for the Army against the Navy in front of a packed Twickenham.
In the country he has called home since his arrival aged eight, after rising to prominence as an amateur the likeable winger represented Glasgow Warriors then in 2016 fulfilled a long-held dream by scoring a try for Scotland against South Africa on the World Sevens Circuit.
After arriving in the UK in 1999, Bulumakau was educated in Edinburgh then followed his Father Bainivalu, who previously represented Fiji at sevens, into the British Army and is extremely proud of the year they spent serving alongside each other.
His younger brother Andy, who currently plays in the centre for National One Birmingham Moseley, is also well-known in English club rugby after the pair shared spells with the Knights and at Coventry. Both qualified to represent Scotland through residency but hold Fijian passports.
Social media was quick to support Bulumakau who after six operations on his ACL is mixing recuperation with a spell coaching Scotland League Division One Highland whose promotion rivals include famous names such as Melrose, Heriots, Gala and Kelso.
Prominent among his supporters was Bath forward Josh McNally, also a serving member of the armed forces with the RAF, who Tweeted: “I’m not sure how this works!! He has served this country and now is being asked to leave. Ridiculous.”
Leicester’s Premiership star and a fellow Fijian Nemani Nadolo also voiced his support: “Halfway through year 22 of service to Queen and Country! Getting kicked out to a country that would be so foreign…not mentioning my man represented Scotland in 7s..”
But Bulumakau’s sudden dilemma took its biggest leap into public awareness when former Daily Mirror editor turned TV personality Piers Morgan advised his 7.9 million followers and the Home Secretary: “Absolutely outrageous – good enough to serve this country but not good enough to live here? Fix this please @pritipatel – urgently.”
Support flooded in as the wider public became aware of Bulumakau’s situation. Scanning down his Twitter feed it is interesting to see just how much of this came from veterans or from families of those who have gone through similar experiences.
Typical of this was: “An absolute shambles, anyone who serves Queen and Country should be given automatic allowance to stay in this country. The way they treat both serving soldiers and veterans is an absolute disgrace. Thank you for your service Junior.”
The story has a happy ending since Bulumakau’s immediate superiors quickly made contact with the Home Office to remedy the situation.
“Thankfully I have the full support of the British Army and have a further 10 years left of service,” he Tweeted a couple of days later.
“It looks to be an error on the Home Office side. Still a shock to see how easy it is to kick Commonwealth soldiers out once their service is done.”
Thanks for the support I received yesterday. Fortunately, I am still serving in the British Army and this letter won’t be actioned. However, I want to highlight the current visa fees for Indefinite Leave to Remain, faced by commonwealth soldiers and their families. https://t.co/CzlgUAsO8N
— Junior Bulumakau (@JuniorBulumakau) January 15, 2022
Speaking exclusively to RugbyPass, Bulumakau revealed how shocked he was to receive the letter, and said as a result he is stepping up his support for a military veterans’ support campaign fronted by among others Johnny Mercer MP and Dan Jarvis MP.
This pressure group is lobbying the Government to remove sizeable visa fees which face Commonwealth soldiers and their families seeking ‘Indefinite Leave to Remain’ in the UK at the end of their military careers.
“I’m still serving, so I never expected anything like that and when I opened the letter I got a real shock,” he said.
“I spoke to my chain of command and it has all been sorted out, so my main aim now is to highlight to people about the unfairness of fees facing Commonwealth soldiers.
This situation confronted the Bulumakau family when Junior and Andy’s father completed his 22-year term with 1 Scots. At the current cost of living level, a family of four must find nearly £10,000 in order to stay in the country they have served and which over 20-plus years has become home.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to comments