London, June 11: In what is being described as the most far-reaching and controversial changes surrounding immigrants' rights, British home secretary Theresa May is set to announce on Monday curbs that include the end of the right to avoid deportation on the basis of maintaining "family life", and raises the minimum salary of a person wishing to bring a non-European Union foreign spouse to £27,200.
Another proposal will extend the probationary period for a non-EU spouse from two to five years, thus making it more difficult for a couple, more so if it's a marriage of convenience. Elderly relatives who might become a burden on the free National Health Service or benefits structure will be refused immigration.
With these changes, the British government would be challenging the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), urging the House of Commons to advise the judiciary in the UK that ECHR's authority is not absolute. This is likely to adversely affect Indians planning to join partners in Britain.
May will ask the Commons to pass a motion which conveys to judges that public interest comes first, which incorporates the economic well-being of the country, public safety and reduction of crime. A government aide told the 'Sunday Times' that if judges do not take heed, Whitehall "will return with new measures which include the option of primary legislation".
The argument put forward was: "Article 8 of the European convention is a qualified right, not an absolute right." Home Office statistics indicate that in 2011, 185 people successfully appealed against their deportation by British authorities by claiming the right to a family life under Article 8 of ECHR. The home secretary now wants judges to give precedence to new immigration rules over this human rights clause.
Geoffrey Robertson, a leading human rights lawyer, said, "The government cannot use subsidiary legislation like immigration rules to dictate to judges or to trump their interpretation of Article 8."
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, was quoted as saying: "Given the toxic nature of immigration politics in a recession, it becomes especially important to distinguish between abuse and criminality and anything that splits up genuine innocent families of British nationals."
In 2003, Mohammed Ibrahim, an Iraqi asylum-seeker, hit a 12-year-old girl with his car and left her to die. After his imprisonment, he committed burglary and theft. A home office order to send him back to Iraq was overturned by judges because Ibrahim had fathered two children in Britain. This gave him a right to a family life.
May is demanding that foreigners jailed for between 12 months and four years should be deported in the public interest, unless they have been resident in the UK for more than 20 years or have children who have lived here for seven years.
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