Belgian Marc Maurice, 62, will be forced out of the country he loves under Reform plans to end leave to remain. Based in Manchester, he has dedicated his life to helping others.
A frontline worker with Mother Teresa’s charity could be booted out of the UK under Reform plans to end leave to remain.
Belgian Marc Maurice, 62, spoke of the grim prospect of being forced out of the country he loves after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told of the fight to save the soul of the nation. Marc faces being forced to leave due to the plans of Nigel Farage to end leave to remain.
Yet Marc has dedicated his life to helping others, with the charity set up 75 years ago by Mother Teresa. At first her famous Missionaries of Charity helped the poorest of the poor in the ‘black hole’ of Calcutta; its volunteers are now working around the world.
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As an ‘Urban Monk’, Marc has taken the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and wholehearted, free service. The order survives on donations and so does not cost the taxpayer a penny.
Based in Manchester, Marc has guided youngsters struggling to find work. Known as ‘The Brothers’, his order provides training and teaching to give life skills to young people.
Marc has been granted indefinite leave to remain so did not apply for British citizenship despite working with the order for more than 30 years. He told the Mirror: “I was unaware of the plans to end my leave to remain. I love it here, love the work that I do and I would be very sad if I was forced to leave.
“All I have done is give back to the community; I guess that I would have to do that somewhere else. We have no means other than what is freely given to the charity, we live a simple life on what is given and have a free and wholehearted life of service. This has become home here.”
Marc, born and brought up in the Flanders area of Belgium, added: “I love the work with the teenagers as I think that we do make a difference.” He used to work in Manchester’s Strangeways Prison and recalled an inmate saying to him ‘I wish that I had met you when I was 14.’
He added: “That stayed with me, and it is why I decided that I would try and work with young people to make a difference before they lose their way. If they are struggling, I tell them that they will find help by talking about it, they open up bit by bit.”
His volunteering also involves mentoring children aged 11-16, through vocational courses. Some struggled through the loss of close family at an early age.
The Brothers in the Missionaries of Charity work in around 21 countries across the globe. The Brothers began work in 1963 alongside Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity in the ‘black hole’ of the city then known as Calcutta.
They operate not only in India and the UK but also Haiti, Columbia, Guatemala, Italy and Romania. Marc’s unstinting service to the charity has spanned more than 30 years.
Nigel Farage announced that if Reform was elected he would scrap Indefinite Leave to Remain. Labour warned this would not only remove the main route to citizenship for migrants but would also put hundreds of thousands of people legally settled in the UK at risk.
