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Fears of influx of right-to-settle Gurkhas
5 Jan 2010Military charities voiced concern today over their ability to cope with the numbers of former Gurkhas coming to them for help.
One predicted that up to 12,000 Gurkhas could apply for UK residency over the next three years after winning the right to settle here last year, with fears that many will need accommodation and basic equipment on arrival.
Paul Cummings, from the Army Benevolent Fund, said a dozen families had already approached his charity during the two weeks before Christmas.
Of the others expected, he told the BBC: "They will arrive from an aircraft, they'll probably have two suitcases and no more. They're going to need everything to set up home."
Mr Cummings added that although the Ministry of Defence had set up a resettlement office in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu to help brief applicants about life in Britain, none of the people he had seen had been there.
He said: "Having not been through any preparation in Nepal prior to arrival, they're coming here with no resources to back them up and no means of sustaining themselves.
"It is an issue of grave concern."
The charity has estimated that new arrivals will need about £2,000 per household to set themselves up with some accommodation and basic furniture.
Dr Hugh Milroy, chief executive of Veterans Aid which deals with homeless former service personnel, said charities were "coping well" with the Gurkhas.
But he warned: "This has the potential to be overwhelming and that is very worrying."
The MoD said that more than 2,000 people had attended its settlement office in Nepal since it opened three months ago.
It told the BBC: "By working closely with other government departments, we have also put fast-tracking arrangements in place to ensure that ex-Gurkhas arriving in the UK receive all the support and benefits that the welfare system offers."
Reader views (22)
Joanne Lumley wants them,why doesn't she put them up?
- Eddie, London, 06/01/2010 11:35
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These Gurkhas have served our country well and we should be proud to have them live here. The Government has had no effective immigration policy since it came to power. It should make the funds available, after all we appear to pay benifits to Choudry and many others opposed to the West.
I can not help but feel there is more than a bit of Labour spin revenge after Joanna Lumley made the Home Office and MOD Ministers look the numpties they are.
- Very Angry At Mp'S Expenses, Home Counties, 06/01/2010 11:32
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It would be a privilege and an honour to have them as neighbours.
- Bloke, Lambeth, 06/01/2010 10:37
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Where to accommodate them? Well, for a start, we can move them into the luxury accommodation recently hightlighted in the Standard, with Somalis and Afghans (in Acton) living in million pound homes. We owe the Gurkhas. As for the others, we them nothing.
- Js, London, 05/01/2010 17:17
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I am somewhat shocked by some of the comments about Joanna Lumley here. Leave her alone - she has to be one of the most magnanimous people alive in Britain today. You might as well have a go at Mother Teresa while your at it.
- Jules, Ilkley, U.K., 05/01/2010 14:40
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Let's welcome the Gurkha's and get rid of the extremist faction who are a drain and a stain on this country.
- Holly, London SW3 UK, 05/01/2010 14:09
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I would just like to tell Paul of London that many Forces regulars do not get any pension. In my case I served six years (longer than WW2 lasted) and then a further five years for the MOD. Ansolutely no pension at all for a total of over eleven years service. Other people served longer. In one case fifteen years service in the RAF. Imagine the pension benefits if he was an MP? We all suffer the disadvantage of being indegenous white Britons. If I bother voting at all it won't be for one of the main parties. They have all let down the Forces and also those Equitable Life members who get no recompense unless they happen to be a thieving MP.
- Fred, Horsham, 05/01/2010 13:52
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Well we could easily get them jobs. Set them on Anjem Choudary and his merry men. That would soon put a stop to all this miltant nonsense. I bet they would all run a mile if they saw a Gurka coming at them.
- Scott, london, uk, 05/01/2010 12:52
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Steven (London) makes the most crucial and acute point of all the comments. An en mass departure of Gurkhas will leave their district of Gorkha, and the coffers of Nepal as a whole, severely depleted. Gurkha pensions have provided the sole financial income and stability (and the education) for whole villages. It's not an exaggeration to say that Nepal's economy desperately relies on these pensions.
I was a volunteer for two years in Nepal and met many Gurkhas and their families. They are very upright, proud, honourable men.
What is little known outside some of Britain's immigrant communities is that people here send money back 'home' to India, Pakistan or wherever. That's the culture. (Apart from anything, it would be a huge loss of face with your relatives and your village, NOT to do so).
Even if, when financially hard-up, it occasionally might mean 'bending' or playing the system here to do so. Sending money home for the sustenance of relatives and to pay for weddings is a non-negotiable obligation. However much, or little money they have to live on here, some of it WILL be sent home.
It would be a huge distortion to the Gurkha character and temperament, if those and their offspring in Britain, eventually unable to find work, say, were forced to play the system and bend the rules in order to fulfil their financial obligations to their Nepali relatives.
- Susan, Reading, 05/01/2010 12:48
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I understood that only a small number of Gurkhas would arrive here and they would want to work, too proud to claim benefits. They need to show they have financial resources to fund themselves in the UK before leaving Nepal. They are now bring their families over to cash onto the welfare state. No benefits for these people.
- John, Stockport, 05/01/2010 11:48
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Joanna Lumley (and Prince Charles as Commander in Chief of some regiments) want to probe into how badly British army soldiers are treated when they leave the service. They and their families have been left homeless after service and often have to live with relatives. Homelessness has been the cause of lots of family break-ups. It would surprise some to learn just how many ex-army servicemen are sleeping rough on our streets today. We salute and give them medals whilst they're serving, but seriously don't want to know when they're in civvy street. Especially the wounded. This is a black mark that shames Britain. Only those wearing rose tinted specs would expect the ex Gurkha's to receive different treatment.
- Rhys, Darlington, 05/01/2010 11:45
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You would have no problem handing the influx of Gurkhas if you would stop wasting time on immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan. The Gurkhas are more pro British than the British themselves, the immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan never will be.
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands, 05/01/2010 11:44
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Good luck to any arriving Gurkhas. Having served this country well they are welcome immigrants and deserve anything the welfare state can offer them.
- Mark H, London, England, 05/01/2010 10:43
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If the Gurkha's have the means to provide for their own housing, then no problems. To arrive in old age, destitute, with several dependents is maybe setting up expectations to be smashed.
I too would welcome the Gurkhas. They can certainly teach the meaniing of loyalty to some immigrants. Reality is, that many are struggling when they come here. An Army charity on Radio 4 this morning said that they had 12 families arrive in November and are expecting many more, and that their finances just can't cope. Last week a Gurkha interviewed on local radio said he'd paid for a course to enable him to get a job as a security guard. That was six months ago and no job on the horizon yet. He and several others are in the same boat and says they are all really dispirited.
- Robert, Aldershot, 05/01/2010 10:40
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Rather 1 million Gurkhas then 1 Anjem Choudary.
- Lance Johnson, Canterbury, Kent, 05/01/2010 10:39
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"Joanna Lumley would be advised to make a trip to Nepal to inform the expected influx of ex-Gurkha's that they are far better off in Nepal with there British pension."
J. Johnston, London
She may also want to explain to the Nepalese people the ramifications of all the former Gurkhas and their families leaving for Britain and taking their pensions with them.
If all retired Gurkhas decide to accept retirement in Britain then it will affect Nepal detrimentally first and foremost.
Britain has the stability and the economy to accept the Gurkha ex-pats, but did Joanna Lumley ever stop to think how the emigration of the retired Gurkhas, taking their families and pensions with them, may affect the Nepali society, economy and culture.
The removal of the trained and educated Gurkhas, along with their families and what is, in Nepal, a sizeable pension, can only affect their country negatively. But Ms. Lumley probably didn't stop to think about that once she'd hopped up on her bandwagon.
- Steven, London, 05/01/2010 10:35
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What J.Johnstone fails to point out is that the Gurkhas were fighting for the British Army and as such should have benefited from the same pensions as British Army regulars. That they did not was and remains a national disgrace. Joanna lumley has spent a great deal of her own money in this regard already. I think we should be more concerned by the story at the weekend that a family of Somali 'former asylum seekers' have been paid out over £200k in housing benefit in just 18 months, living in a flash £1.8mn house in Westminster! (check the Sunday Times)
- Paul, London, 05/01/2010 10:13
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"Elderly Nepali's are arriving in Britain with only a suitcase and without speaking any English!"
Er, they served in the British Army didn't they? I don't know what the language of command in the Gurkha regiment is, but I'm sure they will have acquired quite a good command of English nevertheless.
Allowing our Gurkha veterans to settle here is simply a matter of honour.
- Roy, England, 05/01/2010 10:05
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We have millions of immigrants & their families who despise us & are here to destroy us.
The Gurkhas are very pro British.
They can form elite security squads to deal with the enemy within without
running the risk of being branded racist.
- Convenient Truth, Reading, 05/01/2010 10:00
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Great, they can all sleep on Joanna Lumley's sofa until they get settled.
- Hansel, London, 05/01/2010 09:24
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Prince Charles was a backer of Joanna Lumley's efforts to gain Nepali Gurkha pensioners the right to pensions and to settle in Britain. Neither seem to have thought through what this meant financially, or culturally. Elderly Nepali's are arriving in Britain with only a suitcase and without speaking any English!
Will either of the pair be putting their hands in their substantial pockets to fund these impoverished new arrivals and their families? When British pensioners went to Spain or anywhere else to settle, they not only took their pensions with them, but savings. And every one of them settling abroad in Spain, France or wherever will have bought their own homes. (Even British pensioners who took part in the liberation of France in WW2 will certainly never have expected the French to house them if they have retired there).
Joanna Lumley would be advised to make a trip to Nepal to inform the expected influx of ex-Gurkha's that they are far better off in Nepal with there British pension. It will go a lot further there. That with the heavy troops in Afghanistan and the injured returning, army allocation of houses are in short supply and in heavy demand. Especially for returning wounded and families.
Nobody in Kathmandu is telling these retirees and their families that to arrive in Britain without means, work and the ability to house themselves, that they face a dire future of poverty here. Culturally they will be extremely isolated. Bad look-out all round.
- J. Johnston, London, 05/01/2010 09:02
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I welcome them with open arms. They have served this country well.
- Abominable Snow Man, London, 05/01/2010 08:55
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