Migration pact will help return illegal settlers, offenders: Patel
NEW DELHI: The new India-UK migration and mobility partnership and a proposed British law on migration will facilitate the movement of Indian professionals and simultaneously streamline the process of returning illegal migrants and offenders, British home secretary Priti Patel said on Monday.
The UK government understands the importance and significance of speedily resolving the cases of economic offenders such as Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya and is working with the courts to address “legal challenges” in
order to ensure “just outcomes”, Patel said in an interview.
The migration and mobility partnership, signed by Patel and external affairs minister S Jaishankar to coincide with the virtual India-UK Summit on May 4, will facilitate up to 3,000 young Indian professionals availing employment in the UK every year, and also enhance bilateral cooperation in combating illegal migration. The two sides have set April 2022 as the deadline for implementing the partnership and Patel described the arrangement as an “unprecedented” and a “bespoke” route to benefit young professionals from the UK and India.
“At some stage, when we publish the figures on the new points-based immigration system [introduced by the UK last year], you will see that India is benefiting enormously from this because it’s a professional route,” she said.
Patel also spoke of her plans for introducing a new legislation on illegal migration during the state opening of the UK Parliament on Tuesday, which she described as a “big reform” that will “facilitate the path for [illegal Indian migrants] to be returned back to India”.
“So we have many legal obstacles in the UK, I’m not going to sugar-coat that. These legal obstacles end up in the courts, people will use appeal, it is a complete legal merry-go-round. We are going to streamline much of that and bring new efficiencies and new transparencies and new accountability around that,” she said.
These reforms will streamline the process of identifying illegal migrants and also address “some of the extradition challenges that we have faced over years”, she added. She, however, declined to provide a figure for the number of illegal Indian migrants expected to be sent back from the UK.
Asked specifically about the extradition of Nirav Modi and Mallya, Patel said many of the complexities and legalities surrounding illegal migrants also apply to both these cases. She contended she had changed the relationship between the UK and Indian governments in respect of extradition, and the British side was working to resolve these cases as speedily as possible.