‘British airport officials harassing legal migrants’

London: Overly zealous British home ministry officials are “humiliating, harassing and abusing” legal Indian and other migrants at airports across the country, a campaigning group said today.
“Though migrants are used to discrimination and harassment, these new revelations show how the treatment of legal immigrants by border control now has stooped to the lowest of levels,” the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) Forum said in a statement.
The British home ministry was unable to offer a comment immediately, but said it was looking into the complaint.
The group, which won a high-profile case against the government this year, said migrants who were in Britain under the HSMP visa were suffering at the hands of “overly zealous immigration officers” at some of Britain’s busiest airports like Heathrow, Manchester and Belfast.
“Our members complain that upon their and their families' return from trips abroad, they are harshly discriminated against by the immigration authorities, though they are fully legally entitled to re-enter the country to continue contributing to the British economy,” said Mr Amit Kapadia, executive director of the forum. It said immigration officers not only lecture migrants, and offer unsolicited advice, but have also detained and threatened to deport without reason.
It gave the example of Pooja Tandon, who was detained at Heathrow airport while returning from a holiday in Switzerland with her husband, child and parents. It quoted her as saying the immigration officer lectured them about “finding alternative employment” and about “the shifts we work and child care arrangements.”
“He then said he is detaining us for further enquiry and if he is not satisfied with it, then he will deport us,” although the family was let off with a verbal warning.
Pooja Tandon added: “We are really shaken by this incident. We felt being treated like criminals. We pay our taxes and national insurance and all other bills, and are being threatened this way.”
02/10/08 Indo-Asian New Service/The Statesman

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Categories: Airports Oct 2008, Foreign Oct 2008