There are about 30,000 other Indians in the UK who are not as lucky as Shilpa. The pleas for support from both the Indian govt and MPs have fallen on deaf ears.
DNA Analysis
LONDON: When Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty was allegedly subjected to racist bullying in the Celebrity Big Brother house, MPs both in India and the UK came to her rescue creating such a furore that it created a diplomatic incident. The multi-millionairess has been able to cash in on the publicity with more offers of work in the UK. Keith Vaz, MP fast-tracked a work permit for her in two days so that actress can earn more money and even wished that the beautiful star would never leave Leicester.
However, there are about 30,000 other Indians living in the UK who are not as lucky as Shilpa. Their pleas for support from both the Indian government and MPs have fallen on deaf ears. “We have repeatedly appealed to the Prime Minister and the foreign ministry to speak to the UK government about the unfair and unethical treatment meted out to Indian immigrants who are here under the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme, but have received no real support,” Amit Kapadia, coordinator of the HSMP forum told DNA.
More than 30,000 Indians and their families are facing the prospect of having to uproot themselves all over again and return to India, simply because the British government has changed its immigration rules and their visas are now expiring.
These immigrants came to the UK with promises of acquiring a permanent right of settlement because they were skilled and filling important vacancies in the work force.
Many made financial sacrifices, uprooted families and shifted here in the hope of earning more. With the new immigration rules laying emphasis on hiring European Union nationals and the age and salary of the applicants, thousands of Indians are now being forced to go back.
Prabhakar Rao, who lives in London with his wife and 4-year-old daughter, used to work for UTI Bank in Mumbai. He came to a reputed UK university to do his post
graduation and opted for a HSMP visa when his studies finished. But now his HSMP visa extension has been refused and he is unhappily packing his bags to go back home. “I could have continued my career in India but the false promises made by the UK Home Office made me believe that UK immigration would pay off. But now all my plans have been jeopardised and we are facing a financial crisis,” said Rao.
For HSMPs, unlike Shilpa, there is no fast-tracking of visas and most of them have waited for 2-3 months to get their work permits. Normally work permits can take around 5 to 15 working days to be processed. They are being rejected by the UK rules because they are earning less than £35,000 per year and are now over 28 years of age. “The UK government is treating us like cash machines and not as human beings,” lamented Kapadia, an entrepreneur who came to the UK in 2002 to do an MBA.
Most HSMP are very disappointed with the lack of support from the Indian government. “We have expectations that the Indian government should come forward to help us,” said Kapadia. “Their silence is raising too many questions,” he added. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has repeatedly said that NRIs are the backbone of the Indian economy, but here are thousands of NRIs who need the Indian government’s help, but that help is not forthcoming.
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