International   

New immigration bill may hit Indian workers

LONDON: Hundreds of Indian workers may be forced to return home if the British government went ahead with its controversial immigration and citizenship bill, campaigners have warned.

The Highly-Skilled Migrant Programme Forum (HSMP), which represents Indian and other non-European Union skilled migrants, described it as “discriminatory” and said that some of its provisions were in breach of the commitments made to them when they came to Britain to fill shortages of skilled personnel in many of areas of the British economy.

In a statement, Amit Kapadia, executive director of the HSMP, said the proposed legislation ignored several High Court rulings against retrospective application of new immigration rules.

“The HSMP Forum has won two landmark judicial review cases, where the Home Office was ordered to honour the original terms of migrants’ visas after it tried to alter them retrospectively. Yet the government is determined to press ahead with the new Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill, which tries the same thing all over again,” he said.

Among the many discriminatory provisions was the proposal to retrospectively increase the waiting period for citizenship from four to eight years, he said.

“We are urging MPs from all sides to scrap this bill or ensure it is amended so that no legitimate migrant already living in Britain is caught up in these arbitrary and retrospective rule changes,” Mr. Kapadia said, warning of legal action if the bill was pushed through in its present form.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

New immigration bill may hit Indian workers
Concern in Pakistan over Obama’s remarks
Sikhs in Orakzai are not of concern to India: Pakistan
Stop razing homes, Israel told
Nepal for balanced ties with India, China
$3.4 billion for ecological projects: China
Iran reaches out to Brazil, Venezuela

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu