FIVE and a half million Britons live permanently abroad – a higher number of expatriates than any other European nation – yet you never hear of any who have had to go through the same callous legal processes Marysella Earnshaw is being subjected to; and she is now a British by marriage (The Press, April 23).

The details of the case suggest that it is not being dealt with objectively, but in respect of a single issue: race. It is shameful that we have laws enabling and even obliging the Border Agency to act in this way.

Maurice Vassie, Deighton, York.