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A family with three young children is set to be torn apart by immigration rules after the dad lost his job in Dubai and his wife was denied a visa to the UK.

Dan Newton, 41, and Carla Villon-Newton, originally from Ecuador, have temporarily taken up residence in her home country because they have no other options.

But Dan and their children - British citizens aged between ten months and five years - are there on visas which are set to expire.

They face a desperate situation as they're just days away from leaving Carla and flying to the UK without her, the Manchester Evening News reports.

The family say the Home Office doesn't think the children's lives would be disrupted if Carla doesn't live with them.

(Image: MEN)

Dan, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, had a job in corporate training in Abu Dhabi but his contract was ended without warning in June. Without a job he lost his right to stay in the United Arab Emirates, and he wants to move back home to the UK with his family.

But Carla was denied a spouse settlement visa despite the fact their children, Octavio, 5, Raphaella, 3, and baby Maya-Alice, are all British citizens. Maya-Alice is just ten months old and is still being breast-fed.

The couple were forced to leave Abu Dhabi on Friday and have temporarily fled to Ecuador, as they have no other option.

Dan and his children only have a 30 day visa in Ecuador, and after that they have to leave.

Home Office rules, introduced in 2012, mean Dan must have a job in the UK paying a minimum of £18,600. He has been desperately looking for a job but has had no luck so far.

The only other way he can meet the government’s ‘financial requirement’ rules for ‘spouse settlement’ is to have £62,500 saved up in the bank. However the couple are £40,000 short of the target.

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Dan and Carla now face the prospect of being separated by thousands of miles.

The couple tried using the Human Rights Act to challenge the Home Office decision, saying their right to family life was being denied. But immigration officials say they are ‘not satisfied’ Carla could not maintain family life by ‘regular contact’ and ‘visits’.

Dan said: “When we got the rejection letter for the spouse settlement visa, it felt like a bolt of lightning hitting us – it’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s not right, we just want to go home.

“What am I going to do? I’m not leaving my wife. The Home Office said they don’t think there would be an impact on our family if Carla doesn’t live with us. They didn’t believe our children’s lives would be disrupted.

“But it would break Carla’s heart, she is still breast feeding. What’s awful is the fact that our government – who we think we can rely on – stands for this. They are taking the mother of my children away, they are taking the love of my life away.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “The family immigration rules, endorsed by Parliament and upheld by the Supreme Court, require applicants to meet a financial and English language requirement.

“Where an application does not meet the requirements of the family immigration rules, including on the basis of exceptional circumstances, it will be refused. This was the case with (Carla Villon-Newton’s) application.”

Dan has set up a GoFundMe page to raise the £40,000 the couple need in order for Carla to move to the UK.