Behind an undistinguished street door not far from Buckingham Palace a small group of dedicated case workers and expert volunteers have given hope to Foreign & Commonwealth veterans from all over the world after they’ve received bad (or no) advice, been baffled by bureaucracy, cut off from medical care, benefits, the right to work – or simply got lost in UK Border Agency’s backlog. Glyn Strong revisits the charity at the heart of the issue to see what has changed over the last 12 months.
(First published in UK Progressive, Sunday 20 October 2013)
10 October 2013 – It’s exactly one year since Dr Hugh Milroy, CEO of Veterans Aid, sent an open letter to the Prime Minister – via The Times’ Thunderer column – protesting about the treatment of Foreign & Commonwealth soldiers. Since then a number of things have changed; some, but not all, for the better.
For several weeks last year this charity for veterans in crisis was rarely out of the news; in a classic David-v-Goliath standoff it took the case of a decorated Fijian soldier, who faced deportation because of a scrap with a fellow soldier, to the media and in doing so unlocked a Pandora’s Box of debate about discrimination and what it means to be a veteran in 21st Century Britain.
Milroy was beleaguered by interview requests worldwide – from Fiji, Australia, Botswana and the Caribbean, all concerned about the impact on their nationals. The Fijian Prime Minister took a personal interest and asked for a meeting. “There was genuine concern and distress across the Commonwealth” Milroy recalled.
It felt like a victory when the Home Office announced it was to relax rules so that personnel with only minor disciplinary convictions could stay on in Britain after they left the services. It went even further, promising to review the criteria for granting settlement rights.
Heady days for an organisation like VA that had seen its traffic in frightened human beings from the Commonwealth increase tenfold as word spread that it was willing to help them negotiate the legal and bureaucratic minefield surrounding UK residency applications.
In its 82-years of activity the charity has dealt with homelessness, alcoholism, drug addiction and almost every issue affecting the health, wealth and happiness of veterans. It never expected to become a specialist resource for those seeking legal advice about immigration.
“But that is exactly what we’ve become” says Milroy from his busy Victoria office, “and there are times when it seems as if we are the only support organisation for veterans offering the flexibility, understanding and expertise to deal with the human cost of bad advice, bureaucracy and ignorance.
“Veterans Aid has always offered a diverse range of support but the sheer volume of these settlement-specific pleas for help has put pressure on our resources and, to some extent, realigned the focus of what we do. Fast footwork and dedicated effort from the team has developed real expertise here, but we can’t help wondering if the scale of the problem, even now, is fully understood.
“If there is a belief that, because of interventions thus far, the issues will just go away and that the families involved will be left unharmed, I can say that this is not our experience and it concerns me greatly.”
On 13 September MP for Woking, Jonathan Lord’s Private Members Bill – Citizenship (Armed Forces) 2013-14 – received its second reading in the Commons. It seeks to amend the British Nationality Act of 1981 so that Foreign & Commonwealth citizens in the forces who want to apply for naturalisation as British citizens are not disadvantaged because of time served overseas. Current law mean that ‘F&C’ citizens must have been in the UK for five years prior to making an application – and those who spent the first day of that time serving overseas, albeit on active service in Afghanistan, may have to wait longer to apply than non-service personnel or those who have spent their entire military career in the UK.
It is clearly a well-intentioned Bill, introduced to ensure that the Military Covenant is delivered in practice as well as in spirit, and Immigration Minister Mark Harper quoted Milroy’s words during its debate: “We warmly welcome any initiative that removes obstacles to those who have served this country with honour from settling here legally and have campaigned on this issue. Veterans Aid, more than any other military charity, has championed the cause of Foreign & Commonwealth servicemen and women disadvantaged, through no fault of their own, by bureaucracy. This was an injustice and we applaud the Government for listening.”
But a visit to Veterans Aid reveals that last year’s publicity, far from resolving problems, has given more of those likely to encounter them the courage to seek its help. And the problems don’t relate just to citizenship but also to applications for ILR/FLR (Indefinite/ Further Leave to main in the UK.)
Veterans Aid outreach worker Debbie Langdon deals directly with the Border Agency on behalf of all who qualify for the charity’s help. The whiteboard by her desk features a growing list of names and case references. The latest is that of a former Royal Engineer from Nigeria who left the Army in September. After two years service he had been medically discharged.
“He told us he had lived in the UK for six years,” said Langdon, “but never applied for citizenship. After leaving his Army quarter he had nowhere to go. When he came to us he was sleeping in a garage. His 18-month old daughter and pregnant wife slept in a cupboard.”
With VA’s help the family were moved a hotel, paid for by the charity. The former soldier wrote: “On behalf of me and my family, we thank you very, very much for temporarily putting us in this hotel. I mean, putting us in here is equivalent to saving our lives. We also thank you for the money . . . . We have not felt this comfortable for a while. We really, really appreciate it. We went there same day you booked it for us. We are there now and we are coping well. . . . My daughter’s allergic reaction to dust is now minimal since we got to the hotel.”
It’s an immediate intervention, not a long-term solution, and the outcome is uncertain.
Shevon Louis (Photo by Glyn Strong)
A now happily resolved case is that of Shervon Louis who helped out at VA’s HQ pending resolution of his case. The 28-year-old St Lucian was medically discharged from 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment with the cold weather injury NFCI, just shy of the qualifying period that would give him the right to apply for ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain).
The condition (Non Freezing Cold Injury) manifested itself during an exercise in Scotland and again in The Falkland Islands. It was first dismissed, then diagnosed, but ‘Louis’ coped. Then just as he qualified for NCO cadre he was medically downgraded and subsequently discharged as unfit. On 19 September 2012 Army welfare advised him that his legal status would expire after 28 days.
“I’d never planned to settle in the UK,” he recalls, “but I now need to stay here to get access to treatment. They don’t know much about NFCI in St Lucia!”
He paid fees to the UKBA for his ILR application, a further £1,000 to a solicitor – and he waited.
After the 28-days had passed ‘Louis’ was in limbo; unable to work or earn money he sold his car, moved in with relatives and started working out how to live in Britain on £67.66 per week (his pension from the Army). After six months – unwell, angry, broke and depressed – he asked his solicitor for an update.
He was told that the UKBA had new staff and were facing a huge backlog. “I’d already waited six months. Next they asked me for biometrics, but then another two months passed and still nothing.”
In fact Louis’ application remained ‘in the system’ until he came to Veterans Aid – and Langdon intervened.
At this point he smiles. “She listened to me, promised to help, gave me £200, got me some new boots . . . I’m feeling better now, but I was really down, I’d lost weight. I’m energetic, an ambitious person. It was hard.”
Today he holds the small pink card, the size of a driving licence, that gives him the right to reside and work in the UK, but doubts whether he would have got it without VA.
Langdon and her colleagues have worked tirelessly to build a relationship with Border Agency staff. Visits have been made, cases discussed, dusted-off and revisited. There has been progress.
Immigration Minister, Mark Harper said: “The Home Office greatly values its working relationship with Veteran’s Aid, the Families Federations and other excellent charities supporting the Armed Forces community. It’s important when developing policy that we have a good understanding of how it will impact the people it affects. Armed Forces organisations work as our eyes and ears on the ground pinpointing where policies don’t work for Foreign and Commonwealth troops and giving us feedback on Home Office issues affecting members of the Armed Forces.
“The Armed Forces Community makes a huge contribution to this country and they deserve our respect, support and fair treatment.”
Certainly there is more clarity about settlement and nationality – and more publicly available information. The Army website, for example, contains a great deal of advice relevant to F&C soldiers and now carries a direct link to Veterans Aid; ironically it sits above a paragraph advising readers that “There is a MOD exhibition entitled ‘We Were There’. It shows how men and women from Africa, Asia, the West Indies and other Commonwealth countries fought and served alongside British forces from 1750 through to modern times. ”
Since last year’s euphoria over resolution of the Baleiwai case the landscape has changed considerably; redundancies have been announced and in July a five-year residency qualification for Commonwealth recruits was introduced, reinstating a rule that was scrapped in 1998. (Paradoxically it does not apply to Gurkhas or those from the Republic of Ireland, Malta or Gibraltar).
“Future clarity is all very well” says Milroy, “but, just as we predicted, it doesn’t help with the legacy issues; we think there are more than 50 nationalities in the British Armed Forces and we are still seeing new people each month. It is a complicated, specialist area and few High Street solicitors are versed in the intricacies.”
Just hours later, on a bright autumn day, Langdon walks into a dark room at a London Barracks where a sea of faces greets her. Many of these serving soldiers, drawn from a variety of countries, hope to make their home in the UK or make arrangements for their families to join them. As Langdon speaks, it gradually becomes apparent that few have anticipated any problems in this respect.
She shares a platform with VA volunteer Alan Olson who held judicial office and for 13 years worked in the immigration sector. When they begin to touch on the new ‘KoLL’ (Knowledge of Language and Life in the UK for Settlement and Naturalisation) test that will take effect from this month (28 October 2013) the group’s raised eyebrows and quizzical expressions give way to audible gasps of disbelief. Members of HM Forces are exempt from the requirement at settlement but need to meet it if they choose to naturalise as a British Citizen.
“I can tell you, all of us at Veterans Aid, would have failed,” said Langdon.
The men listening to her are soon to be deployed as members of the British Army. As Olson described the process they will have to go through to live in the country they have served as ‘Costly, complicated and difficult’their unease is palpable. After the presentation several make a beeline for Langdon with questions but they are timed out. “I’m going back next week to run an advice surgery, ” she says.
Sir Edward Leigh quotes there being 8,510 non-British members of the UK trained regular forces – around 5.1 per cent of the total. It is not known how many aspire to British citizenship. But is this just a big fuss about a small problem? Those debating Jonathan Lord’s the Citizenship Bill believe that ‘only around 200 people at any point in time’ will be affected.
This figure is a Home Office estimate of the numbers affected by the specific measure in the Bill, not an estimate of the numbers applying for citizenship.
Meanwhile Veterans Aid tries to manage its backlog and takes calls from at least two new people every week. And they’re not all veterans; many are still serving. Some have problems relating to children or spouses – not all have issues related to the Bill.
Olson, is one of the many concerned professionals who now volunteer regularly at Veterans Aid. For six months he has provided advice and support to staff and clients and admits to finding the problem larger than he had believed.
“Half the trouble is that people have been misguided or had no guidance at all. The process of application is very complex, even for people with a legal background; for lay people it’s impossible! ”
Olson concedes that because some leave it too late or don’t get any legal advice they end up disappearing below the radar. “There are certainly far more than official appearances at tribunals would suggest.”
His own involvement with VA came after hearing a talk by the charity’s substance abuse worker, Phil Rogers. A visit to see the organisation ‘at work’ followed and he soon joined the band of anonymous pro bonoprofessionals who augment the efforts of those at VA’s Victoria Drop-in Centre.
“Most of those we see here are people who have done less than four years and been discharged on medical or other grounds. It is sad. They have served this country then suddenly been made redundant through no fault of their own. They believe they have a fair claim to Indefinite Leave to Remain or citizenship – but often they do not,” he reflects.
“Discretion can be exercised in these cases but although there are guidelines, they are by no means clear. Criminals, some controversial asylum seekers and terrorist suspects have certainly shaped the public perception of ‘illegals’.
“Publicity about immigration is always given to the wrong people”, says Olson who points out that veterans are further disadvantaged by the cost of regularising their status. “It costs over £1,000 to put in an application and that is not refundable if it fails.”
He has nothing but praise for Veterans Aid. “The rapport that Debbie (Langdon) has built up with the UKBA is excellent. She contacts individuals there directly about cases and this has been invaluable for clients. ”
Not everyone can be helped; there are clear cases where an individual’s actions or behaviour make him (or her) ineligible. On the other hand, a single error on a form can generate rejection or critical delay.
The commitment to change is something Milroy welcomes, but for those VA staff at the sharp end, dealing with the human misery that ensues, it is still a curate’s egg and he’s concerned, “We applaud the aspirations of Jonathan Lord’s Citizenship Bill and are on record as asking for the Military Covenant to be given teeth, but for those grappling with complicated and changing rules, financial hardship, misleading advice, UKBA backlogs and retrospective awareness of what a predicament they are in there’s a long way to go.”