A teacher who was ‘unfairly’ imprisoned and forced to leave China after living there for four years has launched a campaign to be reunited with his wife who still remains in the country.
Martin O’Brien, from Renfrewshire, Scotland, revealed how he was held in solitary confinement in a bare jail cell and interrogated over his visa for several days in Shenzhen.
He has told the tragic story of how his wife was committed to a psychiatric hospital with depression after miscarrying their first child, leading him to quit work to become her full-time carer – and plunge his savings into her medical bills.
Mr O’Brien tells how he later contracted coronavirus during lockdown, spending days in intensive care before being booted out of China and ordered to pay back the British Embassy £3,000 for his own flight home.
He received a police letter claiming his Visa ran out in March, despite Mr O’Brien’s stamped temporary residence form saying it was extended until June – the month he was kicked out.
Now homeless and sleeping on his friend’s sofa, Mr O’Brien, 27, feels ‘torn apart’ from his beloved wife Pamela, who is still in China.
The English teacher, who had lived and worked in the country since 2016, demands answers and shares fears over his wife’s mental health the longer they remain apart.
He is now raising money to clear some of the medical bills from Pamela’s stay in hospital – and to pay for legal services.
He hopes to move to China again when their borders reopen – or to bring his wife to Scotland.
Martin O’Brien, from Renfrewshire, Scotland, feels ‘torn apart’ from his beloved wife Pamela, who is still in China (both pictured in 2019)
Mr O’Brien revealed that In February 2019, Pamela discovered she had fallen pregnant a few weeks after the pair wed.
‘It was a bolt from the blue and I was afraid it would cripple us financially,’ he admitted. ‘I’d just started a new job, we didn’t have any money saved and it’s so expensive to raise a child – there are no free hospitals, schools or welfare.
‘Then I thought, ”You know what, you’re never going to be ready”. She was over the moon. Family is really important over there. So I became excited to start my life with her.’
But one night, Pamela woke up in pain and was bleeding. She was taken to the hospital, where the doctor told them she had suffered a ‘phantom pregnancy’ – where a woman is not with child, but she still shows symptoms which can last long enough to make a woman believe she’s expecting.
Pamela was kept in for checks for two days before being allowed home.
Mr O’Brien said over the following months, his wife spiralled into depression, becoming quiet and withdrawn. She slept on the couch every night and barely left the house for weeks.
‘My brother had just had a baby and my mum was texting me photos. She would cry and say ”that could have been me”. It was tough,’ he said.
In June 2019, Pamela attempted suicide while Mr O’Brien was at work one day and he was forced to take action. He spoke with her mother and they checked her into a psychiatric hospital, where she remained for six months.
He quit his well-paid job as a translator to become a full-time carer, visiting Pamela at her bedside every day.
‘They don’t have enough staff to carry out 24/7 care, so I had to quit. She shared a room with four other people,’ he said.
In June 2019, Pamela attempted suicide while Mr O’Brien was at work one day and he was forced to take action. He spoke with her mother and they checked her into a psychiatric hospital, where she remained for six months
‘It was a horrible place for her to be and it was so difficult to see her there. She would be tied to the bed and sedated when she became too upset. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take its toll on me too.’
In December 2019, after six months of therapy, Pamela was discharged from the hospital.
Mr O’Brien got a new job as a translator and an apartment in Yantian, a quieter, coastal district in Shenzhen.
He and Pamela began settling into their new lives there, away from the urban lifestyle which fuelled his wife’s anxieties. Then, news broke that a deadly virus was spreading across central China.
‘We thought it was going to be fine. But then we started seeing police and armies deployed to the streets,’ Mr O’Brien said.
‘Wearing face masks was made mandatory from the get-go – and we were told we would be arrested if we didn’t wear one.’
‘It became pretty clear pretty quickly this was serious. Pamela returned home to her mum’s house and I stayed.’
As workers returned home to their families for Chinese New Year, Shenzhen became a ghost town. Mr O’Brien, now out of work, said he only spoke face-to-face with two people between January and mid-February.
Then, residents were barred from leaving their homes and the army began delivering supplies and rations directly to their doors, armed guards manning the entrances to his building.
‘It was like being in jail. At least in the UK, you could be furloughed and you were allowed outside. I couldn’t work, my savings were fast running out. I was living alone in an apartment block 18 floors up. The rations were powdered egg, rice, teabags and a bar of soap. There were days I didn’t eat at all.’
On February 9, 2020, Mr O’Brien was leaving the shop he was permitted to visit within his apartment block and had his temperature checked by a police officer before entering the lift. He had been feeling sick that day but presumed it was a hangover. The thermometer read 39C.
Mr O’Brien is pictured in ICU after contracting coronavirus. After being sedated for days in intensive care, he was then ordered to isolate for two weeks at his apartment, with police checking on him every hour to ensure he had not left
Mr O’Brien, who had lived and worked in China since 2016, now demands answers and has revealed his fears over his wife’s mental health the longer they remain apart
He was ordered to return to his flat and wait for medics and police to come. He tested positive for the virus and was taken to hospital, where he was sedated for days in intensive care. He was then ordered to isolate for two weeks at his apartment, with police checking on him every hour to ensure he had not left.
There were days Mr O’Brien was so weak he could barely stomach his food or leave his bed. It took a few weeks before he returned to full health.
Throughout the spring, lockdown began to ease in the region. Citizens were allowed out to walk and to visit shops and dine out.
Pamela came to stay with Mr O’Brien at the weekends but their savings were running low. They ate most nights for free at their friend’s Japanese restaurant and promised to pay them back once Mr O’Brien was back at work.
He applied for an emergency living costs loan for expats stuck abroad during the coronavirus, but this was declined by the Embassy as flights home were still available between China and the UK – a condition of this kind of emergency loan.
Things began looking up as Mr O’Brien was told he could return to work.
‘It seemed like the light at the end of a long tunnel,’ he said.
On June 13, he and Pamela visited the police station for his three-monthly visa check, a routine procedure for all expats. As the officer checked his passport, she asked them to sit in the waiting room. Then, eight police officers came out and escorted him through the back.
‘This was when I knew something was wrong,’ he said.
A police letter claimed Mr O’Brien’s Visa ran out on March 18 despite Mr O’Brien’s stamped temporary residence form saying it was extended until June 16
The police letter claimed his Visa ran out on March 18 despite Mr O’Brien’s stamped temporary residence form saying it was extended until June 16.
Mr O’Brien was detained for six days, after being told he had overstayed his visa – but he maintains that his permit had been previously extended and did not expire until June 16.
‘There was no bed, no sink, no toilet in the cell. Just a stone bench which was wide enough to sit on, but not to lie on.
‘The light was so bright and they left it on 24/7 so I couldn’t sleep. They gave me a cup of rice which had so much salt in it and a tiny cup of boiling hot water to drink. I’ve only got one kidney so I was genuinely worried at how that would affect me.
‘Not to mention it was 37 degrees and there was no air conditioning either,’ he added.
He was only allowed out of his cell to go to the toilet under police guard.
Mr O’Brien asked those handling his case to speak in English so he could understand the legal terms used as there was no translator present.
He was told to sign forms admitting to the claims and accept a 10-day visa before taking a flight home to the UK, rather than be deported.
‘Several days in jail, no sleep. I was at my wit’s end. I was told this was my best chance of being able to see my wife again. I had to take it.’
Exhausted, Mr O’Brien was released from prison on June 19 and went home to greet Pamela.
‘I felt s***. Six months I had stuck it out here through the pandemic, with no money and alone. One week before I was to start work, I was being kicked out. I was ready to hang myself.’
Pictured: Mr O’Brien’s residence and visa extension permit, bearing the date June 16 on the right hand side
He got in touch with the embassy and asked if he could save money by taking a flight home from Hong Kong but was told to take a £3,000 economy flight through China Southern Airlines, a debt he would have to pay back.
Mr O’Brien’s flight was scheduled to leave on July 12. For Pamela, the realisation that her husband was leaving the country with no guarantees that he would be allowed back hit her hard.
‘She had been fine up until the day I was leaving, it was as though she thought we would figure it out until then. She started throwing chairs and knocking stuff over before we left and getting upset. She began crying when we got to the train station.
‘She said ”Why is this happening to us? We have made it through a miscarriage, hospital, the virus, just for this to happen.”
‘I never cry but that got me.
‘I called her while I was on the train to the airport. She said she had sat at the station for two hours because she couldn’t face going home without me.’
Mr O’Brien arrived at Glasgow Airport two days later and told Border Control he had returned from China. He realised there was no room to isolate at home with his school teacher mother and two younger brothers, one of whom has a six-month old baby.
He was taken by police to the Marriott Hotel for his 14-day quarantine.
‘If I passed something on, I wouldn’t forgive myself. I don’t want that on my conscience,’ he added.
Now he alternates between two friends’ houses, sleeping on the sofa.
He has been spending time applying for jobs and housing while he figures out his next move.
He added: ‘I phoned my dad and he told me there are no jobs here, that I couldn’t just ”waltz back” into work. A lot of people I know are just waiting to get laid off.
‘I’m waiting to hear back from Citizens Advice, I imagine I’ll get placed in a homeless shelter. Though they will be inundated with people seeking advice right now.
‘My friends are great but it’s not a nice feeling living in someone’s sitting room.’
His nightly phone calls with Pamela have become a source of comfort and strength as he continues his fight back to see her. She has a new job in advertising and spends evenings and weekends playing card games with friends to keep herself busy.
‘She told me she doesn’t know what to do without me and I feel like it’s my fault, somehow. I feel responsible. Yet utterly helpless.’
Mr O’Brien is now raising money to clear some of the medical bills from Pamela’s stay in the hospital and to pay for legal services. He hopes to move over again when China’s borders reopen or to bring his wife to Scotland.
He said: ‘I never wanted to do a public campaign but I have been advised to as it is a lot of money. I’m not saying I am a saint but my wife wants me to be by her side. She spent months in a mental hospital.
‘In most countries I would likely have citizenship if I had married a national. Politics aside, they shouldn’t be splitting up families.
‘I feel like the odds have been stacked against us in a lot of ways – but I’m going to keep fighting. I’m just lucky I have someone I love that gives me hope every day.’
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: ‘Our staff supported a British man who was arrested in China for overstaying his visa, including by providing financial assistance to cover his flight back to the UK.’
Mr O’Brien’s flight home was covered by an emergency repatriation loan, which helps those who cannot afford travel costs home.
Emergency living cost loans, for food, accommodation and prescription medicine, have set criteria which includes that recipients can only receive a loan if they’re in a country with no travel options to return to the UK.
Source: Daily Mail
