Gurkhas fight discrimination in court

July 16, 2008 - 5:47AM - Sydney Morning Herald

Former Nepalese Gurkha soldiers have received the green light to go to the High Court in London to challenge alleged racial discrimination over their right to settle in Britain.

Judge Jeremy Sullivan granted a group of veterans permission for an urgent judicial review of the lawfulness of Britain's settlement policy for Gurkhas, who have been part of the British army for nearly 200 years.

The challenge - which will be heard in mid-September - relates to more than 2,000 retired Gurkhas refused permission to settle in Britain because they do not have "strong ties" with the country.

Appeals over those decisions had been due to be ruled on next week by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, but the judge said that should be delayed pending the High Court hearings on September 16 and 17.

"Once it has been decided whether the policy is lawful it will be much easier to decide each individual case," he said, promising "an authoritative decision" by the end of September.

It is the latest in a series of legal battles over Gurkha rights.

Around 200,000 Nepalese Gurkhas fought for Britain in World Wars I and II. More than 45,000 have been killed serving Britain.

Around 3,500 Gurkhas currently serve in the British army.

Earlier this month, three former Gurkhas lost a High Court challenge over their pension deals, which they said left them struggling to survive.

That case related to an offer made by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in March last year to transfer pensions benefits from the far lower Gurkha Pension Scheme into the more mainstream Armed Forces Pension Schemes (AFPS).

The MoD offered to transfer the value of the GPS pensions into the AFPS for periods of military service after July 1, 1997 - when the Gurkhas' base was moved from Hong Kong to Britain.

Lawyers argued that this unfairly prejudiced older retiring Gurkhas, saying the years of service of those who signed up before that date but retired after were valued at between 24 per cent and 36 per cent of British rates.

© 2008 AFP