All Gurkhas are welcome in the UK … they fought for us

Published on Wednesday 29 April 2009 22:41

IN RECENT years, I've helped serving Gurkhas raise funds for their impoverished forebears who receive no pension from those they served so faithfully, the British.

We raised hundreds of thousands of pounds. The sum's enormous size tells me all I need to know about Scotland's respect and fondness for the wee men from the high Himalayas. The defeat of the government's bill to prevent nearly all Gurkhas who retired before 1997 from living in the UK has confirmed it.

The Home Office claimed these Gurkhas do not have sufficient links with Britain to be entitled to stay here. Let's get this right: Gurkhas who have served the Crown, put their lives at risk to fight for our liberty and safety, and won 13 VCs in the process, are not welcome in the UK if they left the army before 1997?

How can you give the same group of people different rights because of a date? The government says it was in 1997 that the Brigade of Gurkhas' HQ moved from Hong Kong – as if this was of mystic importance. It isn't. Where the HQ was is an artifice; it was where the British government decided it should be and overlooks the fact that Gurkhas have been based in Britain since the 1960s.

Last year, the High Court ruled that preventing Gurkhas from staying in the UK was illegal.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas was at his weakest last week trying to explain how his department had overturned the law of the land. There was a theoretical possibility, he warned, that 100,000 Gurkhas and dependents could settle here. Yes, minister.

Perhaps he hadn't noticed that nearly all of Europe has a theoretical right to live here too, a fact that's never concerned him before. In fact, it seems the government has no hard and fast immigration policy, except against the Gurkhas.

The Office for National Statistics expects Britain's population to rise by ten million in the next 20 years, with seven million from immigration.

In 2004, when Britain's doors were opened to the new EU accession countries, of the 940,000 people who came here legally, only a third were from the EU. Over the past 15 years, more than 90 per cent of legal arrivals have been from non-EU countries.

The four-fold rise in immigration in the past decade can largely be explained by deliberate policy.

In 1997, the abolition of the "primary purpose rule" removed the restriction that required applicants to show they were not marrying only to enter the UK.

In 1998, the abolition of embarkation controls ended any effective record of who came in or out.

In 2002, the number of work permits was doubled. The government claims to have created an "Australian-style points system" to keep out the unskilled, but has no limits on numbers.

So, why take such a hard line against Gurkhas, men who have served the Crown and are of proven good character?

Even by the British government's traditional standards, it's an utter disgrace.

I have in front of me an e-mail from Joanna Lumley who says the campaign for equal rights for all Gurkhas, to be on par with their British Army colleagues, will continue.

A former Gurkha had written to her saying he has no fear any more, as he knows the loving hearts of the British people will not let him down.

That's another Gurkha attribute, I fear; they trust those they like. Our shame is beyond words.

&#149 Neil Griffiths is press officer for the Royal British Legion Scotland. He has organised fundraising events for the Gurkha Welfare Trust.