Council supports Gurkha’s demands
Leader of Warwickshire County Council, Councillor Alan Farnell, has said he is “appalled” that hundreds of retired Gurkha soldiers have been forced to demonstrate in Westminster, to demand the right to remain in the UK and have pension equality with British soldiers.
Fifty of the Nepalese soldiers handed back their Long Service and Good Conduct medals in protest at their treatment yesterday. Gurkhas who retired after 1997 can automatically stay in the UK, but those who retired earlier have no automatic right to remain and could be deported.
Nepalese Gurkhas have been part of the British Army for nearly 200 years. Warwickshire has had strong links with the Gurkhas for decades, with over 200 Gurkha officers and soldiers, part of the 250 Gurkha Signal Squadron, currently based at Gamecock Barracks, Bramcote, near Bulkington. From there, they have been deployed to crises around the world.
Cllr Alan Farnell said: “Warwickshire County Council is committed to writing to Warwickshire MPs and to Conservative Leader, David Cameron, to urge them to support these brave and courageous individuals.
“We must do all we can to support them in their demands to be given equal pay and pension rights, and the right to live in the UK.”
In 2004, Warwickshire County Council passed a motion supporting Gurkha soldiers in the UK, urging the Government to renegotiate the 1947 Tripartite agreement and to allow former Gurkha soldiers and their immediate families to be granted resident status in the UK.
Cllr Farnell said: “These individuals have done a remarkable job for Britain, fighting on the front line in numerous conflicts. The retired Gurkha soldiers should have our full support and we encourage people in Warwickshire to get behind them by writing to their local MP or signing the online petition in their support.”
To sign the online petition, which requests that the Prime Minister honours the 2004 pledge to give retired Gurkhas the right to become citizens of the UK on retirement and to pay retired Gurkhas a fair pension, visit the petitions section of the 10 Downing Street website at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/.