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A Moroccan man is accusing the Home Office of delaying his entry into the UK to render homage to his sister who died last year in the Grenfell blaze, says British radio station Talkradio on Wednesday.
Karim Khalloufi and his mother couldn’t receive their visas «in time» to attend the opening week of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, held in London’s legal district, says the same source.
Because of the delay, he was not able to read a statement the Moroccan family wrote to honor Khadija Khalloufi who lost her life one year ago in one of the deadliest fires in the city.
For the record, Khadija Khalloufi, a British citizen with Moroccan descent was found dead outside the building after being lost for days. The 52-year-old woman was identified by the police on the 17th of June as her body was lying on the grass just 50 feet away from the tower around 6 am.
Racial bias
«They denied the right for us to be here and to read the statement in a worthy manner», Khalloufi told the radio.
«We wrote this statement with our tears, with our feelings, but the Home Office denies us this right and they kept our passports for five months».
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry was launched last June by British Prime Minister Theresa May to establish the facts of what happened at building and prevent a similar tragedy from happening again. The public inquiry started with seven days of commemorations to the 72 victims.
Moreover, the saddened brother accused the British ministerial department of not doing its best to grant them visas, referring to racial bias.
«Maybe it’s a problem of race because I’m sure if it was another person or another nationality - European nationality, American people or Australian people - they would treat them maybe different», he argued.
«But because we are foreigners and because my sister came from council housing, and as you know 90 or 95% of people in Grenfell were foreigners, I feel like it’s a problem of race».
Khalloufi and his mother are currently in the UK to attend the hearings related to the public inquiry. Although they couldn’t be there at the commemorial event, they are determined to know who is responsible for their loss.
«We couldn’t attend the start of the inquiry, but we are here now to fight for justice to know exactly what happened and to let my sister rest in peace», explained El Khalloufi.
For the record, Imran Khan, a lawyer who represents some of the Grenfell blaze’s bereaved, survivors and relatives stressed that the public inquiry into the fire that killed 72 people, including Moroccan nationals, in June 14, 2017 must consider «institutional racism».
He believes that «race, religion and social class» must be taken into consideration when trying to determine the circumstances surrounding the fire especially that the tower was housing immigrant and working-class residents.
