Glasgow’s overstaying Indian migrants ‘will still be deported’, says Home Office

• Pooja Shrivastava
• 20 May, 2021

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By: Pooja Shrivastava

THE HOME Office is going ahead with the deportation of the two overstaying Indian migrants despite them being released from a police van in Glasgow during a highly-publicized protest last week.

The Home Office sources have recently said that the protest has only delayed the inevitable removal of the two men.

“They will still be detained and deported at a later date,” a source said, Times reported. “We will continue to tackle illegal immigration and the harm it causes. The UK government continues to tackle illegal migration in all its forms and our new plan for immigration will speed up the removal of those who have entered the UK illegally.”

Border Force officials arrested Indian-origin Lakhvir Singh and Sumit Sehdevi last week on suspicion of overstaying their visas for several years. Soon after their arrest, around 200 people flooded the street to surround the Immigration Enforcement van and blocked it from leaving. Both were released at the time on public safety grounds after an eight-hour standoff.

Singh and Sehdevi are said to be popular members of the local Sikh Gurdwara temple where the two also worked for feeding the homeless. 

Earlier, the Home Office had approached local Sikh groups in Scotland to assist with their deportation attempt. However, the group denied, accusing it of pursuing a “heavy-handed and targeted approach” in deporting members of its community.

Meanwhile, a migrant charity has threatened legal action against the Home Office, claiming that the two men have lived in the UK for several years and are “part of a community” and the Home Office was aspersive in calling them “illegal.”

There has been an increasing concern in the Indian community that the Migration and Mobility Partnership, the recently-signed deal between India and UK, is the reason behind the renewed push for deportations. The deal reportedly included India agreeing to the forced removal of thousands of illegal immigrants from Britain, while the UK offering more student and skilled worker visas in exchange.