A Fijian British Army veteran who suffered from deafness after serving in Afghanistan returned to the United Kingdom on Friday.
Ioane Koroiveibau, 36, gave up on Britain in 2015 when his immigration paperwork was lost after his discharge on medical grounds, his hearing loss caused by repeated exposure to gunfire on a dangerous tour in Helmand.
But the veteran tried again after being encouraged by a campaign group and was granted the right to settle in the UK, even though his application was made well after the normal deadline, two years after a soldier has been discharged.
“It’s a very big break for me,” Koroiveibau told The Guardian.
“I had reached ground zero back in Fiji, so there is no way but up. Now I hope the other boys here will get the same opportunity back in the UK.”
“I felt betrayed to be honest and there was nobody there to help me or direct me to the right people. After giving everything to the government and to the military, I felt they could have helped with paperwork,” he said.
Koroiveibau enlisted in 2007, winning his place after a competition, and became an infantryman in the 1st Battalion Scots Guards, the former regiment of the defence secretary, Ben Wallace.
He spent seven months in Afghanistan in 2010 – “it was one of the most difficult tours, it was said we fired the most rounds that time,” he said – where he damaged the hearing in his right ear after numerous firefights.
“We couldn’t use ear defenders – we had to have a radio in our left ear, so the right ear was unprotected. Eventually I began to suffer from the noise, I had ringing in my ears, I had headaches, really sharp pains in the back of my head,” he said.
Worsening hearing meant he was medically discharged in 2012, but Koroiveibau believed the army would help him to settle in the UK.
He returned to Fiji, and found that his father was seriously ill, and he died soon afterwards.
The former soldier said his mental health then deteriorated as well as his hearing, and he has since been diagnosed with PTSD, although there is no specialist treatment for combat trauma available in the country.
Koroiveibau’s is one of six test cases put together by Commonwealth Neglected Veterans, a charity run by Esita Tuimanu, a campaigner who has been helped by Dan Jarvis, a Labour MP and former paratrooper.
“We hope this is a breakthrough,” she said.
“Koroiveibau plans to live in Dorset, with a friend, a sergeant in the Scots Guards and a job is being lined up for him as a security guard.
Being in Britain means Koroiveibau can freely access the medical treatment he needs but he will not be able to take his wife and three children to the country because the immigration decision does not apply to them.
