Actress Lumley marches with the Gurkhas
Actress Joanna Lumley has taken part in a protest march with Gurkhas who are fighting for the right to settle in Britain.
The Absolutely Fabulous actress led Gurkhas and their families to the Royal Courts of Justice in London for a test case being brought by five veterans and a widow.
Ms Lumley said before the hearing: “My own father served with the Gurkhas for 30 years. Indeed, he saw action as a Chindit in Burma with Victoria Cross winner Honorary Lieutenant Tul Bahadur Pun.
“Like so many people in Britain I am ashamed at how successive governments have failed these magnificent and loyal soldiers.
“The overwhelming wish of the British is to allow them to live here with us if they so choose. I sincerely hope the court finds in their favour.”
Gurkhas who retired from the British Army after 1997, when their base was moved from Hong Kong to Kent, can automatically stay in the UK.
But those who retired earlier and whose individual settlement cases were decided by visa officials in Kathmandu and Hong Kong, must apply for permission to stay and may be refused and deported.
Edward Fitzgerald QC, representing the former soldiers and widow, told the judge, Mr Justice Blake, at the start of the two-day court hearing that Britain owes “a special debt” to all Gurkhas.
He said four of those he was representing were refused leave to enter the UK on the grounds of lack of strong ties with the country.
“And the Government policy towards all these Gurkha soldiers discharged before 1997 is that they should not have the right to settle in the UK because when they served this country, the Gurkha Brigade heaquarters was in Hong Kong, and not the UK,” he said.
“To say this is to ignore the history of the Gurkhas. And it is to ignore the special debt this country owes to all Gurkhas, past and present, whatever their brigade’s location, and whatever their date of discharge.”
He said for two centuries Gurkha soldiers have served the Crown and established a reputation as “brave and loyal”.
“Gurkha soldiers have won no less than 13 VCs,” he said.
Mr Fitzgerald went on: “So we submit that the Gurkhas, past and present, all alike have ’strong ties’ to this country.
“Their long and dedicated service links them inextricably to the people of this country and creates a debt of gratitude and honour.
“What matters is the fact of service, not the location of service.
“However distant their country of origin, whatever the location of their headquarters at a particular moment in history, however remote the battlefields on which they fought and risked their lives and shed their blood, all the Gurkha soldiers, past and present, were fighting for this country.
“This gives them all equally strong ties to this country - to its life and history.
“Against that background, the continuing exclusion of Gurkha soldiers discharged before 1997 from the Armed Forces Concession was, and is, indefensible.”
This concession grants the right to settle in the UK to non-UK nationals who have completed four years service in the armed forces.
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