London, March 28
Following months of lobbying against changes made to the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP), the British government has agreed to review the new migration rules that have jeopardised the personal and professional lives of thousands of people from India and other non-European Union countries.

The review was announced in London on Tuesday evening by Immigration Minister Liam Bryne at a high level meeting attended by representatives of the Indian and other high commissions, lords, MPs and affected professionals.

The meeting was organised by Keith Vaz, Labour MP of Goan origin. After presentations and narration of problems caused by the changes, Bryne said he would "review and reflect about the changes".

Representatives of the Indian High Commission recalled that the issue had been raised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and others during Chancellor Gordon Brown's recent visit to India. The high commission has been actively taking up the HSMP cause with the British government at various levels.

Vaz said: "When you hear of the families affected, job prospects ruined and of children living in an atmosphere of insecurity you realise that the government must make every effort to secure the future of these people."

"Britain's reputation as a fair, globally-minded country is at stake. If we are to continue to benefit from the work of highly skilled migrants we must be able to prove that we operate on a basis which is clear, transparent and balanced." The vast majority of the 49,000 HSMP visa holders currently in Britain have been affected by the changes, according to Amit Kapadia, coordinator of the HSMP Forum, a group formed to campaign against the changes. The changes include a new points-based system for qualifying and continuing stay in Britain under the programme. This has been made applicable even to those HSMP holders who entered the country under different criteria. Most of them do not qualify under the new points-based system and face the prospect of uprooting their personal and professional lives.

The Indian High Commission said: "Given the genuine human dimension of HSMP status, Indian nationals, who have already entered the UK since 2002, we would urge the British government not to implement the new points based system retrospectively." — PTI