Hi all,
Check out todays TOI, there is an article about the plight of HSMP migrants. Here is the article:
Indians to sue UK for dearly beloved rules
30,000 Workers Lured In ’02, But Law Changed In 2006
Rashmee Roshan Lall | TNN
London: An estimated 30,000 Indians, who left their country to work in Britain in 2002 on the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), have begun the task of taking the UK government to court for its allegedly dearly beloved new immigration policies.
The UK, which allowed the Indians into the country under the four-year-old scheme on the understanding that they would work and probably settle here, has been accused of arbitrarily changing the rules to disenfranchise coloured economic migrants.
Britain’s new HSMP rules, which officially came into force on Dec 5, 2006, will force Indians and other South Asians to leave the country because they no longer fit the highly skilled migrant category. The new rules disenfranchise potential non-European migrants over 28 years old and earning UK salaries less than £35,000, say the affected Indians, British immigration lawyers and immigration campaigners.
Amit Kapadia of the HSMP Forum that represents the victims, told TOI on Tuesday: “Most Indians will no longer be eligible to stay on in Britain under the HSMP because the government is clearly trying to remove migrants like us. They say you will only qualify if you are younger and better paid, even though the average Indian highly skilled migrant can reasonably be expected to be over 28 years old”.
Rhian Benyon of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), told TOI : “Britain’s system of economic migration creates a definite, if indirect, facial disadvantage for Indians and others from non-European Economic Area countries”.
In a sign of the seriousness of the situation, officials of the Indian High Commission have met those affected by the new rules. The High Commission is understood to be keen on lobbying the British Home Office and Foreign Office for a fairer immigration policy.
The changed HSMP rules are the third in a series of changes to immigration policy, making Indians unwelcome in the UK.
April 2006: Rules changed, immigrants applying for permanent residence now required to have lived here five years, not four Health minister announces new rules ending work permit-free visas for doctors from outside European Economic Area July: Law enforced Nov: British home office announces changes in rules for HSMP, with a bias towards younger applicants Dec: New rules enforced Dec: Immigration minister says foreigners keen to settle in Britain must pass compulsory “Britishness’’ test
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