[Geo TV] Thousands of poor Pak immigrants in Britain are being discriminated against in the style similar to the South African apartheid era; hundreds have been jugged by the UK Border Agency officials, even in violation of international laws.The draconian crackdown on Paks, without any objections from the Pak government, started before the visit of British Home Secretary Theresa May to Pakistain last month where she and interior minister Abdul Rehman Malik renewed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) empowering authorities from both sides to curb illegal immigration.
| "But we're Pakistani -- we're entitled!" |
The "clean-up operation", targeting Paks only, has caused panic amongst Pak immigrants and hundreds of those Paks who are awaiting decision on their immigration cases, it is feared, will not turn up to sign on weekly basis - a requirement for those seeking asylum and awaiting decisions on their cases.
Barrister Amjad Malik, who has started a campaign to highlight the discrimination against Pak immigrants from the platform of Association of Pak Lawyers, said that the memorandum between Pakistain and Britain is flawed as there are millions waiting to be regularised in UK and deportation and or removal of only Paks without due process will be discriminatory and against the basic human rights
... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you...
of those individuals some of whom are seeking protection under the Geneva Convention 1951 and ECHR 1950.
"It will be also discriminatory if any other country refuses to sign such memorandum, especially when economically crippled country like ours relies heavily on foreign remittances from its citizens, which top any other non-state contributions. This will help Britain outsource torture."
The MoU did not take into consideration the very poor human rights record of Pakistain and the boundless discrimination that Paks face in their homeland, forcing many to flee the country.
Although the agreement is binding for both countries but it has become a known fact now that the only victims of this agreement will be poor Paks - and the cases of Britons being deported from Pakistain will be rare or negligible.
It is believed that there are around 3 million undocumented Democrats working in Britain from all corners of the world, nearly 1 million only in London, working in the underground or black economy but considered the backbone of the economy for the cheap labour they provide.
| How many unskilled Brits are unemployed at the moment? |
Many studies have recommended to the government to regularise the undocumented Democrats and high-flying Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson has openly asked for an amnesty for undocumented Democrats.
The crackdown on Paks comes at a time when the British government is known to be contemplating, at the behest of Indian authorities and its business groups, measures to exempt Indian economic immigrants from the upcoming immigration cap from the countries outside of the European Union.
While Pak authorities were overzealous against their own citizens, almost no other country in the world has agreed for this kind of one-sided and discriminatory arrangement for their citizens
The heavy-handed crackdown on Paks continues amid the confirmation yesterday in an official watchdog report that the UK Border Agency may be discriminating unlawfully against Paks in its visa decision-making process.
Independent chief inspector John Vine said the UKBA officials were making it more difficult for the people to enter the UK from Pakistain than from states that were members of the Gulf Co-operation Council such as Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Dubai.
There were also "worrying levels of inconsistent and sometimes poor decision-making", senior UKBA managers were dismissive of appeal decisions and there was a "worrying lack of confidence in the work of the visa section - particularly in Pakistain visa operations".
Watchdog inspectors found staff "applying higher evidential requirements for entry to the UK to customers from Pakistain and this was not made clear to them".
Vine said: "I believe the UK Border Agency must take immediate action to ensure it is acting in compliance with its duties under the Race Relations Act 1976, and that, where it considers that different criteria are necessary, it ensures that it has the appropriate authorisation."
Abdul Rehman Malik said that Pakistain had reached an understanding with Britain that it will accept only 120 Pak nationals who will be deported every month from Britain.
Guy Taylor of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants said in a statement to our sources: "JCWI continues to campaigning for the regularisation of irregular or 'illegal' migrants, this includes migrants of Pak origin in the UK.
| "Irregular migrants" -- that's a creative term... |