By IRNA
London : The government’s proposed changes to the immigration rules for highly skilled migrant workers are unfair and unlawful and should be remitted to parliament to be changed, the Joint Committee on Human Rights said Thursday.
The all-party group of MPs and peers criticized planned amendments to the government’s Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) which contain retrospective changes to the rules that affect people who have already made the UK their main home.
The changes to the rules are so “clearly incompatible with Article 8” of the European Convention of Human Rights with regard to the right of respect for home and family life and “so contrary to basic notions of fairness,” it warned.
“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,” said the committee chairman, Labour MP Andrew Dismore.
“These changes are patently unfair, truly a case of moving the goalposts during the match,” Dismore said.
The HSMP, introduced in the UK in 2002, is a US-style points based system to manage immigration. Last November, the points requirement went up to seventy-five points together with a number of significant changes that were also made.
In a report on further planned changes, the parliamentary committee said while it agrees with the government’s aim to safeguard the economic wellbeing of the country, applying them to people already settled was neither proportionate not lawful.
“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,” Dismore said.
The immigrants have settled themselves and their families here and let’s not forget “the huge contribution they make to our country, economically and socially,” he said.