War brides stranded by poverty

Aisla Domanova married a serviceman and moved to Slovakia

A Lincolnshire-based charity says British-born war brides who are stranded in poverty and prevented from coming home, are being let down.

The Air Bridge Association, which is highlighting the case of one of the war brides, says the situation is scandalous.

Ailsa Domanova, 78, is stuck in Slovakia because the British Government will only pay her a pension of £100 a month if she returns to this country, the group says.

She is the widow of a Czech serviceman who served with the Allied forces in the Second World War.

Little money

"All my life I've dreamt of returning home.

"Now my home is gone I've lost everything," Mrs Domanova told the BBC's Inside Out documentary programme.

I can't live on fresh air in Britain

Ailsa Domanova

"I could come back to Britain and exchange my Slovak passport for British money but it's £100 a month.

"You can go to one of the supermarkets and it is not enough.

"I can't live on fresh air in Britain."

Mrs Domanova who suffers from osteoporosis and finds it hard to move, is living on her own in a fifth-floor flat.

The producer of the programme, Richard Taylor, said: "In old age they are only entitled to the equivalent pension to what they would get in Slovakia.

"So Ailsa, can only get £100 a month to live on.

"In Slovakia you can just about squeeze by on that but if she comes back to the UK then it is not enough.

"Yet the British Government say that is all she is entitled to over here.

"She simply cannot afford to move back home."

Because of their advanced age, most of the women do not have relatives who are able to support them.