The Indian professionals along with highly-skilled migrants are planning a huge peaceful protest at the Parliament Square against the UK government's "unfair and inhumane" immigration rules on Wednesday 21st February from 11am-2pm. This is a follow up after the successful and peaceful protest outside Downing Street on Tuesday January 30th, where hundreds joined. A petition by the Highly Skilled Migrant group is doing rounds and has almost reached 25,000 signatures. The group has over 600 doctors, engineers, IT professionals, teachers, lawyers and want to challenge the Home Office in the courts.
The Tier 1 (General) visa previously known as the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, meant for skilled professionals who needed a minimum point score to qualify, was shut by Theresa May, when she was the Home Secretary in 2010. Professionals from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and other countries were also present at the last Tuesday's demonstration. This group has contributed a minimum of £250bn to the British economy and have lived here lawfully for over a decade.
Aditi Bharadwaj, who is running the petition said, “We have been reading, hearing a lot about 'hostile environment' for 'illegal immigrants' but the truth is under the current government it is a hostile environment for legal immigrants too! Those immigrants who were mainly on a highly skilled programme in the UK, working in respectable industries and positions are going through almost inhumane conditions.”
The petition and the protesters have claimed, the government instead of formalising the immigration policies are actually making conditions for legal immigrants worst by eventually making them leave UK, which in turn is becoming a victory for the Conservative government that wants immigration numbers to reduce.
“One of the things happening is applications for a lot of non-EU migrants for indefinite leave being held for over 10 months,” said Aditi. “Some even reaching to 15-17 months. That basically means they have no travel document to go back in any given circumstances. No official form of ID if they don't have a licence. Some of these people have lost their loved ones back home; ageing parents; family problems; mid - life crises; jobs; careers everything at stake...We also saw the introduction of new restrictions on access to privately rented accommodation, driving licences, bank accounts and the introduction of an NHS surcharge and deport first appeal later rules, which are very discriminatory...”
The most damaging of all according to the group is the removal of the right to appeal which is restricted to only appealing on human right decisions, grants of asylum and removal of refugee status. Others are doomed under an internal review system known as ‘Administrative Review’ whereby the Home Office has to review their own decisions and not scrutiny through an independent adjudicator.
Under the new Bill the Secretary of State will also have the power to certify ‘human rights’ claims. This will effectively require appellants to leave the UK before they can exercise a right of appeal on human rights grounds. Only where an individual can meet a very high threshold of ‘serious and irreversible harm’ would then be able to remain in the UK during the appeal process.
“This sees family members of British Citizens, children, seriously ill persons and those who may not have left the UK for many years, and who may have lost all ties with their country of origin, having to uproot their lives in order to challenge a Home Office decision, which statistically has a 50/50 chance of being successful. Some of these migrants are also being referred to a threat to the country just because they might have filed their tax late or may have even amended their taxes later which is allowed by HMRC. Most of these migrants have been in the country for almost a decade.” said Aditi.
One such candidate is Pakistani origin Dr Syed Kazmi, who works in acute medicine at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham. He will return to Pakistan in February after the Home Office refused his application for ILR.
Kazmi’s application was rejected because of an error in a tax return. He had noticed the error himself and withdrew his application in order to correct it. The Home Office, however, used this admission to trigger a section of the Immigration Act designed to tackle criminals and those judged to be a threat to national security.
Another case was of Indian origin Savita Vyas, who was kept at a detention centre in Heathrow for days, when her further leave to remain was rejected after a one year wait for the application to be processed by the UK Home Office. She was married to someone living in the country legally with a permanent residence. She has lived in the UK for 10 years herself. Asian Voice tried reaching out to her for a comment, but was not available.
The petitioners are demanding UK Home Office to start processing the applications within the service standard times at the least - which is 6 months. They also want the Secretary of State to acknowledge late paid taxes or amendments.
The protest comes after the newspaper Guardian highlighted the fact that senior doctors from overseas who had been appointed to fill key roles in hospitals around the UK were being prevented from taking up their jobs by Home Office because their NHS salaries were too low under immigration rules.
A Home Office spokesperson reportedly said: “We aim to resolve all visa applications as quickly as possible and we continue to meet service standards for straightforward applications. It is vital, however, that the correct decisions are made, particularly with complex tier-1 applications that require detailed consideration and verification of evidence with HMRC.
“These robust checks are essential to avoid the potential abuse of our immigration or tax system. Where such abuse is identified, we will act accordingly.”
