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U.K. team to discuss immigration with India

LONDON: In an unprecedented move, Britain’s Immigration Minister Liam Byrne will travel to India next week to discuss with the government proposed changes to Britain’s immigration rules, including plans to increase the visa fee and the controversial new eligibility criteria for the Highly-Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP).

Mr. Byrne, who will be accompanied by a six-member delegation of British Indian representatives, will also have talks with multinational Indian companies and families of Indians settled in Britain.

The changes, billed as the “biggest shake-up” of Britain’s immigration system in 45 years, will affect thousands of Indians including casual tourists, students and those visiting their relatives in Britain.

Some of the proposals such as the move to reduce the duration of tourist visas from the current six months to three, and to impose restrictions on family visits have provoked protests from immigrant groups..

Mr Byrne admitted that there were concerns over some of the issues such as the plan to make immigrants whose relatives want to visit them to deposit a cash bond of upto £1,000 as a guarantee that visitors would return home after the expiry of their visa.

He said: “Already people are flagging key issues – like reserving bonds for borderline cases only and keeping the time limit for family visas at six months. I want Britain’s different communities to help me design a system that is slicker and more secure. We’ve never taken this kind of approach to listening on such a set of changes but I think it’s the best way to get the answers right.” The issue of some 30,000 Indian workers, who came to Britain under HSMP and now face an uncertain future because of retrospective changes to the scheme, is also likely to come up during Mr Byrne’s discussions with Indian authorities. The changes have been criticised and the Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights has called for a review of the government’s decision to apply them retrospectively.

Amit Kapadia, Executive Director of the campaign group, HSMP Forum, urged Mr. Byrne reconsider the changes which, he said, had “devastated the lives of thousands of Indians”.

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