Skilled migrant rules unfair to 49,000 in UK: MPs

LONDON: British immigration rule changes implemented with retrospective effect last year affecting 49,000 highly-skilled migrants including those from India, with many of them even facing deportation, should be dropped immediately, a report by MPs and Peers said on Thursday.

Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) said the changes made last November to the Home Office's Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), which was introduced in 2002 to attract "the brightest and the best", were applied retrospectively to people who had settled in Britain.

"The changes to the rules are so clearly incompatible with article 8 - the right to respect for home and family life - and so contrary to basic notions of fairness, that the case for Parliament immediately revisiting them is overwhelming," the report said.

The rules were tightened by Immigration Minister Liam Byrne last November amid claims that the scheme, which is designed to attract doctors, scientists and computer specialists, was being abused with some who qualified, taking low-skilled jobs once they got here.

But the changes also included making it more difficult to earn the right to settle permanently in Britain for those who had already arrived.

The Lords and Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights urged the Immigration Minister to change the rules to ensure that they apply only to new migrants rather than the 49,000 who have already arrived under the HSMP.

The Committee said the changes breached the European Convention on Human Rights.

The JCHR report comes two months after the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) criticised the Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) on implementing discriminatory changes for the HSMP extension criteria and that the changes does not follow race relations law.

The migrants came to Britain under a scheme that awarded points to people with the skills that Britain needed and offered them the prospect of permanent settlement.

However, the rules were tightened last year when ministers decided that settlement would take five years rather than four and changed the points system.

Points were no longer awarded for work experience, significant career achievements and having a skilled partner. Instead they related to previous earnings, qualifications and age.

The changes were introduced after some migrants were found to be working in the food industry and as taxi drivers rather than in skilled work.

MPs have been deluged with complaints from migrants who sold their homes and brought their families with them under one set of rules, and who now have to apply to remain under another set.

The Committee said that after the changes many migrants no longer qualify for permanent residency and face the prospect of deportation with their families, despite having made their homes in Britain. This was a clear breach of the right to respect for home and family life contained in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human rights.

"The case for immediately revisiting the changes of the rules in parliament is, in our view, overwhelming," the report said.

It said the aims of the changes are legitimate but applying them to people who have already settled under existing criteria is neither "in accordance with the law nor proportionate to the legitimate aim which the changes seek to achieve."

Andrew Dismore, Chairman of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, said: "These changes are patently unfair - truly a case of moving the goalposts during the match. What is being proposed is to cheat on the deal through which people have legitimately made their decisions over their life and livelihood here in the UK."

Amit Kapadia, a spokesperson of the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme Forum said today: "The Government lured migrants to come to the UK to benefit the economy, then they changed the rules. People have made sacrifices, selling property, abandoning careers and moving their families.  These rules should not operate retrospectively."

The MPs and peers quoted an estimate from the Highly Skilled Migrants Forum that 90 per cent of the 49,000 migrants now face being told to leave the country. Other estimates put the number as low as 6,000.

However, a Home Office spokesperson said it was anticipated that the "vast majority" of those on the programme who made an economic contribution would be able to extend their stay in Britain either under new rules or special transitional arrangements.

Welcoming the report, Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green said, "The underlying problem is that the government has lost control of the immigration system, so has been reduced to making superficially tough gestures. In this case, this posturing has backfired because it produces such an unfair result."

The HSMP Forum filed a judicial review against the retrospective application of the changes on February 6, 2007 and the hearing is awaited.