JOIN USIn a landmark judgment that could affect some 2,000 former Gurkha soldiers who retired before 1997, Britain has finally been compelled to allow its veteran Gurkhas to settle in the UK after denying them this right all these years. In 2008 a British government review allowed Gurkhas to apply to settle under a policy known as the Armed Forces Concession, which gives a soldier serving with the British army the right to settle in Britain after four years of service anywhere in the world. For Gurkhas alone, the immigration policy was discriminatory with a cut-off date at July 1, 1997. The Gurkha regiment moved its main base from Hong Kong to the UK in 1997 and the government had argued that Gurkhas discharged before that date were unlikely to have strong residential ties with the UK.
Six Gurkha claimants including five former soldiers and a widow representing the interests of thousands more, fought a legal battle against the British government and won their case backed by political pressure and people's good will. The Gurkhas have been part of the British army for almost 200 years and are directly recruited into the British army since 1948 from Nepal. They have also fought in all post Second World War conflicts for the British Crown from insurgency in Malaya, invasion of Cyprus and Falklands, besides formed the British garrison in Hong Kong till 1997. Until 1995, the safety of much of the Sino-Hong Kong border was the responsibility of the British forces which included the Gurkha regiment.
In March 2008, hundreds of Nepalese Gurkha soldiers who fought for Britain protested outside the British parliament in London, demanding higher pensions and the right to stay in the country they served. This sparked a national petition to entitle them to British Citizenship after their retirement from military service. Interestingly the case attracted public attention after Indian-born British actress Joanna Lumley, whose father was a British officer with a Gurkha regiment during the Second World War, went to the extent of threatening to give up her British citizenship and adopt Indian citizenship if the Gurkhas were not given the right to settle in Britain. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, whose motion in the House of Commons appealed to the political leadership when he said that if someone who is prepared to die for this country should be allowed to live in it.