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Harriett Bruce

'Home for Christmas': Couple to reunite after sham marriage claim led to deportation

Kleber Medeiros was deported in July of this year.

A MARRIED COUPLE who were separated after bogus claims they had entered into a sham marriage will be reunited before Christmas.

Kleber Medeiros was living with his wife Harriett Bruce in Ballinasloe, Galway, when he was deported to Brazil in July.

Despite the HSE sending Bruce an official letter stating that the sham marriage claims were unfounded, her husband had already been sent back to South America. Both parties had to be in Ireland to get their affairs in order but, as Medeiros was subject to a deportation order, he could not return.

But after months of campaigning to get her husband back, it emerged today that the couple will be back together in Ireland in the coming days.

Writing on Facebook, Harriett said she was delighted that her husband was returning home.

She wrote: “Kleber and I would like to thank everyone for all your calls, text messages, champagne, flowers, chocolates, biscuits and cards.

The support is unbelievable

“Excited is an understatement. We’ve no words to describe how happy we both are. This has been a very challenging few months but I gave it my all and eventually we got the justice we both deserve.”

Sinn Feín Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh welcomed the decision of the Minister for Justice to revoke the deportation order enforced against Medeiros.

harriett Harriett and Kleber in Brazil Harriett Bruce Harriett Bruce

He said: “I am delighted that the Minister has reversed her decision and that Kleber is now free to return home for Christmas.

“I was happy to play a small part in the campaign and I believe that bringing Harriett Bruce and other family members to Leinster House to put their case to TDs and Senators was crucial in that process.

It is fantastic that the pressure has worked and that the deportation order has been revoked.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie in October, Bruce described how the couple’s lives had been turned upside down.

She said: “All I want is my husband to be able to come back to Ireland. We have done nothing wrong. We’ve known each other for years. We’ve been together for three years. We had hundreds of people turn up at our wedding.

“Our marriage has been recognised by the church but not by the State.

There’s no protection in our country for people from different countries, cultures and races that fall in love and wish to marry.

“It’s my constitutional right to marry Kleber.

“There’s so much stress being put on us. We’ve only just got married. We shouldn’t be going through this. But if anything, it’s made us stronger.”

Read: The Westmeath hurlers donated their post-match meals to the homeless last night >

Read: Three stabbings involving four inmates at Cloverhill Prison >

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    Mute nicola lawless
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    Sep 8th 2013, 8:30 AM

    ‘You’ll be at their graveside with your hand out’ ne’er a truer word spoken, but what joe forgot to mention is that the system is also pushing some of them into their graves. Sad, desolate times.

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    Mute Floodzie
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    Sep 8th 2013, 8:21 AM

    Bank shares are up this week. Just about says it all…

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    Mute rotund jocularity
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    Sep 8th 2013, 8:16 AM

    Pure pantomime.

    47
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    Mute Pat O'Brien
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    Sep 8th 2013, 9:07 AM

    Peter Mathews “rant” was great. He’s one of the few who are sticking it to these bastards. And fu#k the chairman for his snide remark, it simply shows his ignorance. Mathews simplified much of this crisis in that statement and people should hear that.

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    Mute Martin Desmond1
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    Sep 8th 2013, 8:43 AM

    I’d like to grill a few bankers, face down in a fire pit!
    Not those nice staff who do their best at work every day like you or I but these high 5 slapping gangsta rudeboys in disguise as bob dobolinas! Hardest part would be waiting for the coals to turn fully white before dunking them d!cks.

    42
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    Mute Declan
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    Sep 8th 2013, 9:22 AM

    This “we sent letters out” child like answer to meeting targets should be rubbished by noonan next week and they should be back in next month to answer again about what real work they have done. No ?

    The real truth here is they won’t write debts down because they are waiting for the market to rebound a bit. No chief exec wants to accept that debt on his shift. It will affect his job, his bonus, and as important the shares they privately own which are up since the collapse.

    Sadly the fact that these banks are state owned would appear to mean sweet f**k all….,

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Sep 8th 2013, 10:21 AM

    So after the “grilling” what happens? Do the committee make any recommendations on maybe those in the banking sector not performing loosing their jobs or is that the end of the pantomime until next time they are called? Otherwise it is a waste of time and money.

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    Mute Golden Bryan
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    Sep 8th 2013, 9:09 AM

    What? No Little Stevie Donnelly? The master of populist rhetoric must be losing his touch. The Fan Club will be very disappointed.

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    Mute Quincy
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    Sep 8th 2013, 9:25 AM

    I don’t agree with that comment about Steven Donnelly. He’s not my local Td but anytime I hear him speak he comes accross as a decent hardworking Td with good morals and values. If half of the people in government were like him we might not be in this mess.

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    Mute Golden Bryan
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    Sep 8th 2013, 11:27 AM

    Yup, Little Stevie is on the radio now using his favourite words “horrendous” and “horrific” and saying things like “There’s something wrong with the country …….”, then he pauses like he’s waiting for applause.

    But he has no solutions. He’s just a waffler.

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    Mute Emlyn Grant
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    Sep 8th 2013, 11:40 AM

    Surely the soloution is everyone that bought a house between 2003-2008 gets there mortgage reduced by 20% Thus making people’s mortgages affordable again and for those who are paying there mortgage they will have money to put into the local and national economy.

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    Mute Tom Hourigan
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    Sep 8th 2013, 9:02 PM

    Boucher and Co will continue to treat law makers with disdain and arrogance as long as law makers continue to permit these bankers to receive salaries that are multiples of the salary of the highest ranked law maker in the state. These bankers must, understandably, feel superior and invincible and it must be undignifying for them to have to be accountable to a committee, where the aggregate salaries of any 7 or 8 members would only approximate to that of the highest paid banker. Cut their salaries to sensible levels and observe how cooperative they will suddenly become. Not a problem if they don’t want to work for less, others can be hired.

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    Mute Eric De Red
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    Sep 8th 2013, 11:23 AM

    Political hypocrisy! This state, yet again, faces an existential crisis and the politicians expect bankers (no less) to get them off the hook and to make the decisions that they themselves will not. Bankers will do their job, which in this case is to get as much of the money they imprudently lent out back. To expect otherwise is extremely naive. Politicians are once again ducking the hard decisions. Why? Because to fix this problem we need money and that is already being shipped back to Frankfurt by the tonne. If politicians want the mortgage issue fixed then they need to fix it, not hope for others to fix it for them.

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    Mute SilentFugitive
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    Sep 8th 2013, 12:29 PM

    This was a show for the proles. The TDs knew it, the bankers knew it and the proles knew it.

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    Mute Johnny Mannion
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    Sep 10th 2013, 8:20 PM

    Grilling,hardly

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