A Forum representing highly skilled Indians in the UK on Sunday urged New Delhi to take up with visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown the plight of HSMP visa holders, saying 30,000 of them face imminent deportation.
Urging Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to raise the issue with
his British counterpart at their summit-level meeting on Monday, Executive Director of the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) Forum, Amit Kapadia said, "more than 30,000 Indians and their families are in line for major deportation plans of the UK Government."
"Britain's dictatorial approach towards immigrants has led to wide-spread criticism against the Government's adamant stand towards Non-EEA (European Economic Authority) Immigrants, majority of whom are Indians," he said.
Criticism to changes in the immigration law came from UK's own parliamentary committees, like The Joint Committee on Human Rights, a committee formed by House of Lords and the House of Commons, Kapadia said.
Noted Indian-origin academic, Lord Bhikhu Parekh said retrospective changes in the HSMP are "grossly unfair", causing considerable hardship to those who have come under the programme, and "impugn the good name of Britain".
"They will also make it difficult to recruit talented people when Britain might need them in future. I strongly urge the government to rescind these changes, and act on the rules under which it initially invited skilled people," Parekh said.