BritCits

Damar

“I served in the British army, defended British lives and the British way of life, and now am kept apart from my own wife and child... ”.

Damar is a Hong Kong-born British national, a former Gurkha soldier and now an IT professional – and another victim of this government’s new immigration rules impacting on families.

Damar lives in Hampshire and his initial plan was to move to UK with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, both Filipino nationals, earlier this summer. The said law, however, prevents this, forcing him to be apart from his family. A man who served in the British army, defending British lives and the British way of life, is now being prevented from having a life with his own wife and child.

Damar and his family decided to build a future in Britain in response to the IT skills shortage and to
provide his daughter with a better education. Damar has a science degree majoring in computing and
networking (BScCN) and a Master of Science in Information Technology (MScIT). With over 12 years of IT work experience, and 9 years of exemplary military service before that in the Brigade of Gurkhas, part of the British Army, he is confident that he would be a net contributor to the economy and community.

Damar is, and has always been, an asset not a burden, to UK. It’s clear this unacceptably harsh law will prevent British citizens, including some who have served in the British army, from settling in the UK.

The pain of separation from his wife and daughter is indescribable and brings to the fore the ignorance of the Home Secretary – someone who does not, or chooses not to, understand the impact of the rules she has imposed and devastation being wreaked. The enforced separation has taken its toll on the physical and psychological health of Damar’s family, with insomnia and depression taking a toll on their health.

This government, despite a manifesto claim, is neither family-friendly nor one with morals or common sense.

Damar is aware of British public’s frustration with immigration abuse and sham marriages, but the
Government has chosen to punish poorer and rural British citizens instead of genuinely targeting problem areas. All are shocked that this government places financial conditions on love, family and human rights.

Damar is forced to maintain living expenses in UK and Hong Kong, two equally expensive places. To
sponsor his wife and daughter in the UK, he has to find a job with a salary of at least £22,400 per annum.

The Government is claiming the law is fair, pro-family, and beneficial to the British economy, reduces immigrant numbers by hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands, and upholds the principles of human rights. A complete farce. If preventing certain EU citizens – British citizens with non-EU spouses – from living together will reduce immigrant numbers to the level claimed, it’s wrong in principle and in its estimate of 'success'.

Damar’s desire to live here doesn’t involve sponging on welfare benefits. It’s to work and provide his
family with a better quality of life in the country he risked his life to defend.

This law is an attack on human rights (including a fundamental right to family life), and the UK’s
reputation as an advocate of human rights and open and fair democracy is fast being eroded. It has closed its door to its own citizens; it has, however, provided enough ground to be challenged in court, which it will be, and thus more taxpayers’ money will be frittered away.

How do such rules safeguard taxpayers and the British economy, as the Government has claimed?