UK and the retired Gurkhas

Guardian:

Ministers were accused of "an act of treachery" today after rejecting demands for Gurkhas who retired from the army before 1997 to be given an automatic right to settle in the UK.

Campaigners and opposition politicians accused the government of ignoring a high court judgment that said its policy towards the former servicemen should reflect the "historic debt" owed them by the British people.

Gordon Brown said the new policy announced by the Home Office, which officials believe could lead to an extra 4,300 Gurkhas and 6,000 spouses and children being allowed to live in Britain, was "a big advance on where we were before".

There are 26,500 ex-Gurkhas receiving a Ministry of Defence pension in Nepal, and until 2004 they were not allowed to settle in the UK. The ban was lifted for Gurkhas who retired after July 1997, when the brigade HQ left Hong Kong, but soldiers who retired earlier were only given the right to stay in Britain in very exceptional circumstances.

Today, in response to the high court judgment last year that effectively branded the treatment of the older Gurkhas as unlawful, the Home Office issued new guidance on how applications from soldiers who retired before 1997 should be treated. There will be no automatic right to settle in the UK, but Gurkhas who meet certain conditions – such as having a bravery award, or an illness caused by combat – will qualify.

The announcement infuriated the Gurkhas, of whom 1,350 have applied unsuccessfully for settlement. Martin Howe, a solicitor representing many of them, said that fewer than 100 Gurkhas – mainly officers – would qualify under the new rules. "This is nothing less than an act of treachery," he said.

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The UK is a country that has thousands of Muslim extremist who have migrated there and cannot be removed because of the peculiarities of British and EU laws, yest they seem to have some problem accommodating the desires of some of the bravest troops to ever wear their uniform. It just does not make any sense to exclude people who have done so much for Britian