The various visa fiascos in the UK have left the diaspora flabbergasted, especially after India has been 'purposefully' left out of a list of countries that recently been granted a relaxed student visa rules. The changes that will come into force from July 6th, makes it easier for international students to study in the UK. On a list that already covers countries like the US and Canada, several new countries have been added including Serbia, China and Bahrain, though India remains excluded.
Sajid Javid has in the process caused a diplomatic rift, after the decision that has perhaps stemmed from the 'nonsigning' of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April 2018. The MoU that was discussed by the Indian Home Secretary Kiren Rijiju with his UK counterpart during his January visit, emphasised on the deportation of a 'number' of 'illegal immigrants' to India. Many of these 'illegal immigrants' believed to have come to the UK on student visa during the Labour party rule. An Indian government source called the 'number' of 'illegal immigrants' in question 'not correct'. Mr Modi did not sign the MoU, what initially believed to have been because of the 'timelines'.
The decision to leave 'India' out of this new Tier 4 list, definitely affects the UK-India relationship, that the two countries have been trying hard to foster, especially with Brexit around the corner. This also comes in the wake of the first UK-India week, being celebrated in London from 18-22 June.
As more and more sense of 'distrust' now apparent, it is evident why the Indian Foreign Secretary Sushma Swaraj had reportedly admitted to have influenced Mr Modi's decision on the MoU. It was Prime Minister Theresa May who during her visit to India in 2016 had said that she would consider a better visa deal, only if India 'could step up and speed the volume of returns of Indians who have no right to remain in the UK'. But the numbers have always been a 'bone of contention', that were not resolved before Mr Modi's arrival and continue to stir up further troubles.
A Home Office spokesperson reportedly said that Indian students are still welcome to the UK and they issue more visas to students from India apart from China and the US.
While Britain's Home Secretary Sajid Javid has introduced a new tech visa for non-EU immigrants, the Home Office said that the new visa will make the application process 'faster and smoother' for entrepreneurs wanting to come to the UK. The start-up visa will require applicants to have an endorsement from a university or approved business sponsor, including accelerators. The visa route has been designed following advice from the Migration Advisory Committee and feedback from the tech sector, according to the home office.
But with this new announcement it remains unanswered why 2000 IT professionals were refused their visas over the last 5 months along with 2300 medical professionals. The highly-killed migrants still have their lives hanging by a thread, as home office so far has refused to overturn their decision to not grant them an Indefinite Leave to Remain.
James Kirkup, director of the Social Market Foundation (SMF), a think tank, reportedly said that this step by the Home Office sends a wrong message to India and students, especially during Brexit, as Britain needs to demonstrate that it is 'economically and intellectually' open to the rest of the world.
Sanam Arora, Chairperson of National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU), a UK based Indian students' forum said, "The UK continues coupling students to immigrants is getting really frustrating for all involved in the UK's Higher Education sector. "For starters, this myth of overstaying students needs to be categorically cleared once and for all - last year it was confirmed that 97% of foreign students left the UK after completing their studies. So where is the overstaying student?
"An international Indian student is not a migrant. That is why the entire country is united in asking for international students to be removed from the UKs net migration targets. Even the UKIP asked for this to happen!
"We condemn the abuse of the student visa route by some but would like to remind everyone that unfortunate as it is, where there is a law, there are some who break it and the onus should be on us to create a framework that doesn’t allow abuse - for instance the entire ETS TOEIC issue; which many are still awaiting justice for, was created because of an institutional failure, as was the whole bogus college scandal.
"Sadly, this is harming those that it’s meant to serve - ie the students and the HE sector. It is about time students were given the respect and consumer rights they deserve. On India’s part, we request the MEA to work with the Foreign Office to resolve pending issues urgently. What shared global future will our two countries define together if people to people ties are continuously harmed?"
Peers discuss illegal immigration and back Indian professionals in visa row
The Peers at House of Lords on Thursday 14 June debated about the failure of Home office, the cause and affect of illegal immigration and the plight of the highly-skilled migrants in the UK. They backed Indian professionals who are caught up in the highly-skilled migrant visa row, and called it a 'national scandal'
During the debate called 'Immigration: Hostile Environment', Lord Dick Taverne, a Liberal Democrat peer, who is leading a parliamentary campaign in favour of professionals affected by the by the clause 322(5) said, "This treatment is a national scandal every bit as outrageous as the treatment of the Windrush immigrants. A monstrous injustice is being perpetrated by our government in our name.
"If it is not remedied, the Home Office will not only be breaking every canon of a civilised society, but ignoring one of the most basic tenets of the rule of law the golden rule that someone is assumed innocent until proved guilty...
"Their only error is one that half a million British taxpayers make every year. Native taxpayers amend their tax returns without facing any penalty not even a fine but the Home Office treats migrants who do as terrorists.”
By the clause 322(5) Home Office marks people as 'a national threat' caused by discripancies in taxes, that have been already settled with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
The debate was moved by Lord Bassam and had Lord Morris from the Labour party, Baroness Williams, the Minister of State, Home Office from Conservatives, Baroness Manzoor from the Conservatives, Lord Taverne from Lib Dems, Crossbencher Baroness O'Neill, Lord Suri from Conservatives, Baroness Mcintosh from Labour, Lord Jones from Lib Dem, Crossbencher Baroness Flather, Lord Parekh from Labour, Lord Judd from Labour, Baroness Hamwee from Lib Dems and Lord Kennedy from Labour Co-op participating.
Lord Suri speaking immigration said, “Under the previous Home Secretary, now Prime Minister, the hostile environment came into effect. This brought stricter checks into many more spheres of public life to make it harder to continue to live in this country without the right to do so. The policies enacted put stricter responsibilities on a range of private sector actors. For example, universities and landlords have found themselves in the unfortunate position of having to carry out checks on their tenants and students to check that they are here legally. But this approach did not stop there.
“Public sector bodies were all caught up in the net. Institutions, from schools to hospitals, found themselves having to collect and share data on individuals accessing those services. Checks are also carried out on those seeking a state pension or other benefits. The trouble is that this approach has a fundamental flaw. It has the nefarious effect of acting against people who have been here for an extended period, who have full residency and employment rights.”
Making a very interesting observation on the psyche of the legal and illegal immigrants, Baroness Flather said, “We have a lot of illegal immigrants. When there is a desire to stop illegal immigrants or find them, how do legal and settled immigrants respond? It is an interesting question. They respond in two ways. Of course, they feel unsettled, especially if they have any doubts about their own position, but they also want the illegal immigrants to be found because they feel that illegal immigrants threaten their position. It is not all one-way, where they do not want anybody to find the illegal immigrants; they want them to be found.
“This brings us back to the Home Office. Why are there so many illegal immigrants in this country? Is the Home Office not supposed to keep an eye on people who come to this country? It is no good starting to turf them out and so on once they are here. The Home Office should be stopping them from coming here in the first place. It is not functioning to any kind of standard. Everything takes too long. Even English people trying to get a visa do not know when their passport will come back. It is a very serious situation. The Home Office cannot function with all those responsibilities and should not be one huge department like it is. Immigration in particular needs its own department and people who know the history of migration to this country—why people have come, where they have come from and what the situation is.
“It is no good saying that we do not want the illegal immigrants—clearly we do not. They should be stopped from coming, rather than being picked out once they are in this country and have merged with the rest of the population. When you start doing that you upset them and other people that they are working with. As has been said clearly, you are bound to worry people. On the other hand, if you do not do anything about illegal immigration you do not reinforce the position of those who are here legally...”
In his usual empirical approach Lord Parekh said, “We hear stories of people who owed HMRC only £1 or £2 who have been deported or threatened with deportation. Why is there this kind of attitude? Where does it spring from? From what soil does this kind of attitude to our fellow human beings, now labelled as illegal immigrants, spring?”
Speaking on the hostility towards immigration, he added, “In the course of exercising those powers there have been high-profile enforcement campaigns. Remember those boards on the buses saying 'Go home or face arrest'? In the course of exercising those powers we have used schools to provide the data. We have gone to workplaces to find out what happened. The benefit system has been capped to find out illegal immigrants. Access to services, hospital doctors—at any conceivable point where we can catch them we have been trying to do so. We have set targets, although those became the subject of some controversy, and put them ahead of people. We threaten people with deportation and detention. We look at their bank accounts to see whether any illegal transactions are taking place.
“In the course of using those powers to try to achieve this kind of goal, inevitably mistakes are made—they are bound to be. The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration said that 10% of the cases have been wrongly identified. Not only that but small derelictions become very large—they get magnified in our views and become subjects for deportation...”
Speaking further on the larger consequences of illegal immigration, Lord Parekh added, “First, some legal immigrants have been identified and punished. Secondly, the country’s sensibility has become very coarse, such that if a man is branded as illegal, anything goes, anything can be done to him. Thirdly, because we talk about illegal immigrants, all immigrants get marked in this way and that accounts for the populist reaction that we have been witnessing, not only in Britain but everywhere else. Where people feel so possessive about the country, then the figure of the immigrant, not just the illegal immigrant, becomes a dangerous one, something to watch against. As soon as someone is identified as an immigrant, people will say, “Oh, my God, lock him up, send him away”. The psychology behind the politics has not developed in a vacuum. It has developed slowly, each step being sensible in its own right, but all collectively leading to disaster.
“It is also the case that it has tarnished Britain’s reputation. Those of us who read newspapers in other countries feel deeply saddened that a country we love should be represented in this way as a country which is prepared to denigrate its own citizens, deport them and detain them. This is not the way a civilised country should behave...”
Talking about situations created through foreign policies, he added, “The other important thing is that they come here because we have messed up their countries through our foreign policy and they are in a situation where their lives are unliveable. When I read horrible stories about Syria and Afghanistan and elsewhere, and people coming here, I ask myself why are they coming so late? I should have expected them to come before. They come illegally because they would like to come legally but we have closed the legal door. Illegal immigration takes place because legal immigration has been blocked. So I do not think we should simply blame the villain out there, in the form of an illegal immigrant; we should also look at ourselves and our policies with some degree of modesty and humility and ask ourselves whether we are responsible for what is going on. I do not think the Minister would want to say that we have no responsibility of any kind for the illegal immigration that is taking place.
Emphasising that he wants to alert the Peers to do something, Lord Parekh concluded by saying, “A friend came to see me the other day and this man told me his life story. He cannot bring the wife he married in the Dominican Republic here and cannot bring his daughter. His mother is dying and is desperately anxious to see them. Why, is a long story, but the important thing is that there are cases waiting to break and I think it is about time that the Government became proactive and seized themselves of the situation.”
A petition on 38 degrees created by the highly-skilled migrants have already gathered 97,251 as we went to press (you.38degrees.org.uk). On the page they speak about father of two Owais Raja, who was working as a college lecturer when his accountant make a tax error. His accountant is now convicted for fraud but Owais has been left unable to pay his wife's medical care and the family faces deportation.
