Less than a week after the Government announced new guidance for former Gurkha soldiers who retired prior to 1997, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has confirmed that no Gurkha soldier in Britain awaiting the determination of their case will face deportation. She also confirmed in a letter to Martin Salter MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Gurkha Rights, that the Government’s policy will be reviewed again as early as this July in the light of experience gleaned from the determination of the 1,360 individual Gurkha cases.

Martin Salter said:-

“This is significant progress and the Government has accepted in under less than a week that a policy announced on Friday is not their final word on the subject. The no-deportation announcement by the Home Secretary will come as a great relief to those Gurkhas worried that they could face removal from the country they served so bravely. I have no doubt that these concessions would not have been achieved without the intense backbench campaign run on the Labour benches and out there in the country.”

He added:-

“There is still a long way to go and I have no doubt that there will be further court cases and a vigorous debate when we return to this issue in July. But for now we can move forward with more confidence than we had last Friday.”

Tim Heaver, solicitor acting for the Gurkhas, said:-

“I congratulate Martin and his colleagues in getting the Government to pledge both not to deport Gurkhas whose cases are still in the system and to review their ill-thought out policy in a matter of a few weeks. We have not yet achieved justice for the Gurkhas but this is certainly a welcome step forward.”