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Congratulations to all HSMP holders
and their families. The HSMP Judicial Review has been won. The
Judgment was announced on 8th April 2008. In a landmark judgment the High Court
ruled that
the Home Office acted unlawfully in applying the
retrospective HSMP extension criteria (PBS) changes to persons
already admitted to the Highly Skilled Migrants Scheme as at the 7th
day of November 2006. As per the
figures submitted by the Home Office to the court and Hansard (link)
there have been approx., 50,000 principal HSMP applicants who were
admitted between 2002 and as at 7th day of November 2006. Home
Office was refused permission to appeal and they have decided to
accept and implement the High Court Judgment. Our Barrister Michael Fordham, QC did an excellent job. Judgment is
available here.
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The
Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) on
9th
August 2007 published a report on the recent immigration changes to
HSMP. HSMP Forum has been providing JCHR with information on the
impact of the retrospective changes on HSMP holders. The report
condemned the retrospective changes. (More..) |
The UK Home office has been controversially changing the immigration policies very often
initially in April 2006 wherein the Indefinite leave to Remain (ILR)
qualifying period was extended from 4 to 5 years and then major drastic changes have been implemented on 8th November 2006 for extension of HSMP (highly skilled migrant programme) visas (further leave to remain).
Due to these changes majority of HSMP holders do not qualify for further leave to remain. The UK Government is backing off from the very promises they made to HSMP Immigrants on which they were invited to UK. After the retrospective changes implemented on 8th Nov people are being asked to re-qualify for their visa extension thru an unfair points based system (PBS) rather than initial promise of extension on economic activity alone. The PBS for extension gives more points to professionals below 32 years of age and drawing higher salaries above 35k. It is contradictory to the fact that 80% of the HSMP holders were above 28 years of age at the time of their initial application.
The PBS creates
inequalities
directly around age and indirectly around race. Though it may be
lawful in terms of the exception of immigration rules to the race
relations act but they send mixed messages to employers around
equalities and further conveys hypocrisy. The PBS for extension implemented in Nov 2006 ignores all ground realities on the difficulties people face in finding high salaried jobs due to discrimination in the job market and problems with limited leave to remain visas wherein majority of the UK employers don’t hire HSMP holders for higher salaried permanent jobs where employers demand an indefinite leave to remain. The Commission for Racial Equality
(CRE) after a meeting with HSMP Forum wrote to Immigration and Nationality Directorate informing that the new rules does indirect discrimination towards non EEA nationals and penalizes ethnic minorities.
After several requests
made by CRE to provide the Race Equality Impact Assessment (REIA)
copy, the REIA was provided by Border and Immigration Agency (IND) to
CRE next day after HSMP Forum raised the issue during the meeting with
the Immigration Minister on 26th March 07. CRE criticized BIA on not
publishing the REIA (or making it available), lack of consultation for
the changes and basically conducting a flawed REIA. CRE stated to
Border and Immigration Agency "We are of the clear belief that the
race equality impact assessment (REIA) of the changes to the HSMP does
not fully comply with the requirements of the Race Equality Duty," and
that "the
REIA neglected to address the first limb of the general statutory duty
outlined in section 71(1)(a) – to eliminate unlawful racial
discrimination – and shows no evidence of consideration of the duty to
promote good race relations under section 71(1)(b)". The REIA clearly
projected the changes were made to disadvantage non EEA nationals of
which majority consists of people of ethnic origin. (More...)
Many HSMP immigrants don't qualify for further Extension due to these new changes and are being forced to wind up their establishments, careers, schooling of their children, and investments and are being forced to leave the Country. This is after making innumerable sacrifices like leaving their well established careers back home, selling their properties and overall uprooting their family to settle in the UK based on the undertaking given by the UK Government. |