UK to drop appeal on court order on migrants

By OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT

London, April 17: The home office has decided not to appeal against the high court judgment last week which had ruled that retrospective application of tougher immigration rules for highly-skilled migrants were unfair and unlawful.

Home office had been refused permission to appeal by the judge, but there had been indications that it might approach the court of appeals for permission.

The Border and Immigration Agency chief executive, Lin Homer, wrote a letter to campaign group HSMP Forum Ltd., which led the legal fight against the home office for twice changing the highly-skilled migrants programme regulations in 2006 and applying them retrospectively to the visa holders already in Britain, confirming that the home office had dropped the option of appeal against the judgment.

"Our solicitor is writing formally to your solicitor and the court to let them know that we are happy to take the judge’s decision as final and do not intend to waste taxpayers money with an appeal," she wrote.

Exactly 49,188 people entered Britain till November 7, 2006 through the highly-skilled migrants programme scheme that was introduced in 2002 and roughly half of this number is from South Asia and the bulk of them, more than 17,500 HSMP visa holders, are from India. Everyone one who was admitted to the highly-skilled migrants scheme till and on November 7, 2006 will benefit from the judgment.

Reacting to the home office decision, Prashant Kangarla of Morgan Walker Solicitors LLP who acted as solicitors for HSMP Forum urged "anyone who had to leave the country or had their leave to remain refused because of the rule changes in November 2006 to the HSMP scheme to contact him ([email protected]) or Leni Mathai ([email protected]) to help them obtain re-entry to the United Kingdom."

The firm, said Mr Kangarla, had acted on a "pro-bono capacity because of their commitment to the rights of the immigrants and is pleased to see the commitment reciprocated by the judiciary."

The home office is "urgently considering how to give effect to the judgement" and is keen to make sure that the remedies put in place are clear and work as smoothly as possible.

Regarding HSMP visa holders, who are close to running out of leave to remain in Britain, Ms Homer said: "We are no longer issuing further leave refusals to people affected by the judgement. Any HSMP migrant falling into the group affected by the judgement whose leave is about to expire can apply for an extension of leave. If they do so before their existing leave expires, that leave will be extended until we have made a decision on their application in the light of the judgement. This means they can stay in the country legally until processes are put in place to implement the high court ruling."

The home office is also looking into the issue of appeals pending in the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, she added.