By IANS
London : In a major development, Britain’s parliamentary joint human rights committee Thursday termed the changes to immigration rules that adversely affected thousands of Indian origin professionals and others as “unfair and unlawful”.
In a report released Thursday morning, the committee said professionals under the High Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) would face deportation due to the retrospective changes that came into effect in November 2006.
The migrants’ campaign for a reversal of the changes has enlisted support from MPs from across the political spectrum. The changes have also been challenged in court even as many professionals under the programme have been served deportation notices as they do not meet the criteria for continued employment and stay in Britain under the new rules.
“The changes to the rules are so clearly incompatible with article 8 – the right to respect for home and family life – and so contrary to basic notions of fairness, that the case for parliament immediately revisiting them is overwhelming,” says the report.
The rules were tightened in November amid claims that the scheme, which is designed to attract doctors, scientists and computer specialists, was being abused with some who qualified taking low-skilled jobs once they got here. But the changes also led to making it more difficult to earn the right to settle permanently in Britain for those who had already arrived under a different criteria.
Andrew Dismore, chairperson of the joint committee on human rights, said: “These changes are patently unfair – truly a case of moving the goalposts during the match. What is being proposed is to cheat on the deal through which people have legitimately made their decisions over their life and livelihood here in the UK.
“The government is entitled to introduce these changes to protect its economic interests for future migrants, but it is not right to pull out the rug from under those who have already given up lives, homes and jobs elsewhere in the world and settled themselves and their families here based – let’s not forget – on the huge contribution they make to our country, economically and socially.”
He said the government was entitled to introduce the changes for future migrants to protect its economic interests, but it was not right to pull out the rug from under those who had already given up lives, homes and jobs elsewhere in the world.
MPs and peers quote an estimate from the campaign group Highly Skilled Migrants Forum that 90 percent of the 49,000 professionals – many of them Indians – now face deportation.
However, a Home Office spokesperson said it was anticipated that the “vast majority” of those on the programme who made an economic contribution would be able to extend their stay in Britain either under new rules or special transitional arrangements.
He added: “The changes were needed to ensure that tougher checks on foreign workers are carried out both here and abroad to guard against the risk of abuse and make sure those on HSMP visas are actually doing highly skilled work.”
Welcoming the report, shadow immigration minister Damian Green said: “The underlying problem is that the government has lost control of the immigration system, so has been reduced to making superficially tough gestures. In this case, this posturing has backfired because it produces such an unfair result.”