Disabled musicians banned by Home Office from visiting

Two disabled musicians have been banned by the Home Office from attending a two-week cultural exchange in Edinburgh.

Campaigners are appealing to the public to back their petition to overturn the decision.

The decision to bar 19-year-old violinist Jyothi Kalaiselvi and 25-year-old keyboardist Prem Bhagavan Nagaraju, who are both blind, from coming into Britain for the programme, hosted by charity Paragon Music, was apparently made because of the “economic and family circumstances” of the pair.

The Home Office said it was “not satisfied that you have sufficient ties in India that will act as an incentive for you to leave the UK at the end of your trip”.

However, their non-disabled colleagues, who were travelling with them from the Devasitham Charitable Foundation in Chennai to Glasgow, were granted entry without any trouble.

Ninan Perry, creative director of Paragon said: “We are hoping to build enough support from the petition so that we can put pressure on the Home Office to reverse its decision. We are determined to see our colleagues from Chennai here in Scotland, especially since they hosted our exchange visit to them back in November 2017. We need to get as many signatures as possible. There are only 470 at the moment, but we need to get thousands to making any kind of impact with the Home Office.”

Edinburgh North and Leithsnpmpdeidrebrock said she was “beyond furious”.