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Kind Attn: Liam Byrne,
Immigration Minister
Dear Mr Byrne,
Subject: Revisitng the ILR retrospective changes !
I take this
opportunity to write to you regarding our recent Judicial Review outcome
on the HSMP changes.
As you are aware,
the High Court has severely criticized your office for failing to
identify and resolve the issues concerned with HSMP extension criteria
and indefinite leave to remain (ILR) changes after repeated reminders
from various bodies.
The High Court
judgement stated "...I am concerned about the
repeated refusal to consider the undeniable evidence of hardship and the
extent of the special commitment required of those migrants which has
been placed before the defendant from a number of quarters." The HSMP changes were termed an "abuse of power" by the High Court.
As you might know,
the application of changes in the qualifying criteria for ILR for
existing migrants has caused undeniable hardships. It has not only
jeopardized their plans but has also caused insurmountable difficulties
such as having to pay international student fees for their children who
attend university. The resulting financial difficulties mean that some
need to take a gap year, or abandon their studies or divert their study
plans to a completely different area. It will be greatly appreciated by
immigrants and their families if your office withdrew the retrospective
change in the ILR qualifying criteria from 4 to 5
years of stay for the HSMP holders in particular, and other categories
in general. If required we will be able to provide you with all the
necessary evidence again to highlight various hardships faced by the
majority of the immigrants due to the ILR changes.
We ask you to
consider those migrants who were admitted in the scheme before the ILR
4-5 year changes were introduced, so that the changes are not applied to
those who were admitted in the scheme before the ILR changes were made.
This is a good
opportunity for your office to acknowledge the mistake made in applying
the ILR changes to existing migrants and to show that you listen to
those affected in wake of the High Court judgement on HSMP changes. The
opposition parties such as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats as
well have already suggested that the ILR changes should be abandoned.
Likewise, the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has already
condemned the changes and made recommendations to revisit these.
We hope you will
look into this matter with an aim to rectify this issue holistically.
Unfortunately we will be left with no other option but to take further
legal action should you dismiss this issue. We hope you will rectify
this issue at the earliest.
A positive early
action from your office would only strengthen migrants' confidence in
your office.
Yours Sincerely
Amit Kapadia
Executive
Director,
HSMP Forum
www.hsmpforum.org
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