Dhesi advocates fair immigration policy for better UK-India ties
Tuesday, 01/08/2017
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=179042&boxid=61725&uid=&dat=2017-08-01
Jalandhar : Terming the strict visa norms as a setback for strong UK-India ties, Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the first turbaned Sikh MP from Slough constituency (UK) Monday advocated the need for a ‘fair immigration policy’, which could boost bilateral relations.
Dhesi said that UK government has strict immigration policy, which was likely to become even stricter in the coming days. “An extremely strict visa policy is not good for UK government, as it was affecting the cultural and economic set up of the country. Labour party has been demanding a relaxed immigration policy”, he said.
The MP said that while countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand were inviting students, skilled workers and human resource, UK was going strict with its immigration policy. “UK too could have benefited like other countries, if its immigration policy was relaxed”, he added.
Further, expressing concern, Dhesi said that as per Conservative Party’s Election Manifesto 2017, only those residents whose annual income was between 25,000 to 30,000 UK Pound were eligible to sponsor somebody.
“The UK government has shut down around 100 fake colleges and universities in the recent past. Many students were also sent back home through Sikh NGOs, Gurdwara management committees and individual organizations but it is a cause of concern”, he said.
“In some of the cases, we came across Punjabi youth falling prey to indecent activities and then refusing to go back to India”, he added . Earlier, the MP also said that an independent inquiry should be held in the UK government’s role in Operation Bluestar role and Indian Army action to flush out militants from Golden Temple in 1984.
The MP also demanded the need to ‘significantly prune the Blacklist of Sikhs’. “It will be better, if the UK government could do away with the blacklist”, he asserted.
