Date:10/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/08/10/stories/2007081056791800.htm

International

Migration rules unfair: British MPs

Hasan Suroor

Thousands of Indians affected

LONDON: A cross-party committee of MPs and peers has accused the British Government of “cheating” thousands of migrants — including many from India — by arbitrarily changing the eligibility criteria under which they came to Britain. The changes were made ostensibly to check “abuse” of the system.

More than 15,000 Indian professionals such as doctors, accountants and IT experts who qualified under the Highly-Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), which promised them residency rights after four years, are among the 49,000 victims of the changes introduced last November.

In a scathing report on Thursday, the Lords and Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights held that the new rules were “patently unfair” and in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. It said while the Government was entitled to change rules for future migrants, the decision to apply them retrospectively to those who were already here amounted to moving the “goalposts during the match”.

“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…,” Andrew Dismore, Labour MP, and the committee’s chairman said.

Describing the changes as “contrary to basic notions of fairness”, the committee said there was an “overwhelming” case for “revisiting” them.

“Abuse of provision”

According to the HSMP Forum, which is campaigning against the changes, nearly 90 per cent of them may be forced to return home. Other estimates are more modest.

The Home Office said it anticipated that the “vast majority” would be able to extend their stay. Justifying the changes, it said these were needed to “guard against the risk of abuse and make sure that those on HSMP visas are actually doing highly skilled work.

“We anticipate that the vast majority of HSMP participants who are making an economic contribution to the U.K. will be able to extend their leave either through the HSMP or through the significant transitional arrangements that we have put in place.”

It is claimed that the changes followed reports that many of those who came under HSMP were found to be working in low-skilled jobs.