| Electronic Telegraph |
8
November, 1996
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| Title: Nepalese youth loses battle to stay in Britain | ||
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YOUNG Nepalese man brought to Britain as a boy six years ago by a wealthy
businessman must return to his own country, a High Court judge ruled yesterday.
Mr Justice Laws upheld the refusal of Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, to grant the youth exceptional leave to remain in this country. The judge said many might regard Mr Howard's decision to reject the strong recommendations of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal that Jayaram Khadka should not be deported as harsh. But the policy on which his decision was based was a coherent one and its application "on reflection perfectly understandable". Mr Khadka, now 20, was brought to Britain from Nepal in 1990 by Richard Morley under a pledge made in 1984 to the boy's father, who had saved his life when he fell seriously ill in a mountain village during a Himalayan holiday. Mr Morley, who built up a successful computer and information technology business, had promised to look after Jayaram if Basu, a policeman, died early. When he returned to Nepal in 1990 and found the boy living in "desperate circumstances" after the death of his father, he brought him back to England. Since then he has lived with Mr Morley and other members of his extended family at Clearwell Castle in the Forest of Dean, Glos, which is run as a hotel. Mr Morley treated him as his own son and has made him heir to his estimated £2.5 million estate. Mr Khadka, with the backing of his "father", had challenged by judicial review Mr Howard's decision last March confirming an earlier decision to deport him and rejecting recommendations of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal that he be allowed to stay. Dismissing the application, Mr Justice Laws said he was "unable to conclude" that the Secretary of State's decision was "beyond the range of responses open to a reasonable decision-maker". He said: "Many may regard the result he arrived at as harsh. It may be said that there are some aspects of the case which make it unique, or all but unique. But the policy (despite my criticism of the way it has been expressed) is a coherent one, and its application is, on reflection, perfectly understandable." Mr Howard's decision, the judge said, had been "taken as the people's democratic representative" and if he were to overturn it, he would "usurp that role which it is no business of mine to do". It went "without saying", the judge added, that his personal view of the merits of the case had "no relevance whatsoever". He granted an application by lawyers for the Home Secretary that Mr Khadka should be ordered to pay the costs of the case and refused to give him leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal. Outside court, Mr Morley, who has vowed to leave the country and go into exile if Jayaram is deported, said he was "very disappointed" with the decision. It was "a very sad day for human rights in Britain". He said that most of the eight-strong Clearwell Castle group had lived as a family for 15 years. If Jay was deported they would stay together. He said: "We are prepared to go to the other side of the world to stay together. We want to go to a country which accepts us as a family and recognises us to be a family." Mr Khadka said he was "extremely disappointed" and "very hurt". But he had "found the British people wonderful" with their wishes of good luck. "I am honoured I have learned so much in this society and I am grateful for that." In rejecting the Immigration Appeal Tribunal recommendations that Mr Khadka should be given exceptional leave to stay in Britain, Mr Howard said he had to balance the public interest in maintaining a firm but fair immigration control against the compassionate circumstances of the case. While he accepted that Jayaram's prospects would be better in Britain, the same could be said of many other foreign nationals who would also like to live here. Mr Howard said it would be "manifestly unfair" to them to allow Jayaram to stay and that his circumstances were "not so exceptionally compelling or compassionate as to allow you to remain here outside the immigration rules". |