Breaking news: Indian docs lose case against British govt

[paramjit2k]

LONDON: Thousands of doctors from the Indian sub-continent have lost their seven-month-old legal challenge to the British government to force it to treat non-European Union medics in the UK "on a par and equally" with Europeans.

The net result is that at least 15,000 Indian doctors currently training in the UK may be forced to leave the country with their career paths thrown into confusion.

The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), which was the lead appellant in the case, told TOI just minutes after a verdict they described as "disappointing" that they were considering a legal appeal.

The lost legal challenge had been launched last June, nearly three months after Britain suddenly - and without consultation or warning - decreed that work permit-free visas would no longer be issued to non-European Union doctors, as had always been the case in the past.

On Friday, in a keenly-awaited decision handed down in the High Court in London, the Indian doctors were told by Judge Stanley Burton that he agreed with only one-third of their arguments against the department of health and home office. Judge Burton said he agreed the British government had been lax in failing to conduct a race impact assessment of the new visa requirements for non-European doctors. A race impact assessment is required by Britain's stringent race relations laws.

In a dark sidebar to the High Court judgment, BAPIO said it was lamenting the suicide just days ago of the second appellant in the case against the government.

BAPIO vice-chair Satheesh Mathew said Lahore-born-and-bred Dr Imran Yousaf, who "had been in this country for about two years. (found that) the new visa regulations introduced in April 2006 made it much more difficult for him to obtain a job in this country and he remained unemployed. He felt his career was destroyed."

Mathew said Khan felt "the last straw was when he recently got a letter from the home office refusing him further leave to remain. All this was too much for him and precipitated him to take his own life."

He added, "This to me is only the tip of the iceberg of distress and damage that these new regulations have done to the vast number of international medical graduates (IMGs) in this country." IMG is the technical term used to describe doctors who receive the bulk of their primary and secondary training outside the European Union.

In a sign of the anticipated knock-on effect of Friday's judgement, the ruling was described as "devastating" by at least 30,000 other Indians who lodged a legal case on February 6 to challenge the British government for allegedly disenfranchising non-European economic migrants invited into the UK under the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP).

In Friday's ruling, Judge Burton crucially ruled that contrary to the Indian doctors' assertion, the British government was not required to consult with the affected parties before changing rules governing immigration, visas and work permits.

Amit Kapadia, coordinator of the 800-member HSMP Forum campaign group said the judgment was very disappointing because "if the British government is not required to consult with stakeholders before changing immigration rules, then what is the point of going to court?"

[alientrader]

Finished man

I dont think all other subsequent cases will succeed.
The chances are very low

The British courts have made it clear that they will adopt a euro-centric view on the cases

its time to make alternative preparations.

[alientrader]

But BAPIO's head, Dr Ramesh Mehta, insisted the Indian doctors were keen to lodge a legal appeal as soon as possible to challenge Britain's treatment of them as "second-class doctors". But Mehta admitted BAPIO was strapped for cash after the lost legal challenge, which cost £ 56,000, including the services of a top-flight lawyer and Cherie Blair-ally Rabinder Singh. Mehta and Mathew said it was important for BAPIO to raise funds from Indians everywhere in order to "fight for justice".

Sources close to the Indian doctors told this paper the judgement appeared to suggest "collusion" between the judiciary and executive.

The judge devastatingly ruled against the Indian doctors' contention that Britain's health and home ministries had issued conflicting and restrictive advice with regard to their right to stay on in the UK under the HSMP scheme.

The Indians had argued that the department of health gave restrictive guidance, compared to the Home Office, to Indian HSMP visa-holders. The conflicting guidance, the Indians claimed, did not allow them to take up jobs for a period longer than their HSMP visas even though the Home Office had always said they were free to accept any employment, howsoever long it lasts.

A deeply-disappointed Mathew told TOI that the lost legal challenge was "the first time people of Indian origin stood up against the system".

The High Court case was the first time, in more than half-a-century, Indian doctors assumed a confrontational position with the country that enthusiastically invited them in to serve in its National Health Service (NHS).

BAPIO, which has 6,000 fully paid-up members, claims to address the needs of a further 25,000 Indian doctors in the UK.

In the heady days of June when it had just taken the British government to court, BAPIO had said that the new regulations governing non-European medics "undervalue the contribution made by doctors from the new Commonwealth for decades and this has demoralising effect on the workforce."

Mehta said on Friday," This is a very sad day. This was a fight to uphold the self respect of International Medical Graduates in the UK. We would like to thank our legal team lead by Rabinder Singh QC. It is sad that we are not victorious. We are a voluntary organisation with limited funds but there was a groundswell of support and the money poured in to pay for the legal costs, We want to thank all the hundreds of doctors who contributed their hard-earned money to make this fight possible".