Indian thanked by the late Queen for Covid services faces deportation

Vimal Pandya, who was lauded by the late Queen's representative for his services during the Covid pandemic, faces deportation to India after losing a legal visa battle. Pandya, now 42, had arrived in the UK from India in 2011 on a student visa, but was refused re-entry in 2014 after a visit to India by UK Border Force officials, who informed him that the college at which he was enrolled had lost its right to sponsorship. Incidentally, neither the Home Office nor his college had informed him of the same.
Since then Pandya, who had lost his original passport and other important documents, faced enormous challenges in attempting to regularise his immigration status and complete his education, in addition to the many thousands of pounds in lost college fees and a mounting debt burden, NDTV reported. He was employed as a shopkeeper during the pandemic during which time he spent nearly ‘every waking hour’ trying to help those who were isolating during the national lockdown. His efforts earned him a letter of gratitude from Sir Kenneth Olisa, Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, who wrote to him in February last year on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II.
Meanwhile, the Rotherhithe Residents group have gathered over 177,000 signatures through an online petition in his support, and his case was pleaded by Neil Coyle, the local member of Parliament for Bermondsey and Old Southwark in London during a recent hearing. But the latter was turned down by the judge who noted that the laws took precedence over the views of one MP.