The Guardian newspaper reports that Commission of Racial Equality has written to the Border and Immigration Agency’s director general, Lin Homer, warning that the Highly-Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) reform carried out last year breached anti-discrimination laws.

The changes, in particluarly the retrospective application of the prolonged time required for permanent residence, have caused controversy. Those had successfully applied for HSMP and already been in the UK under the expection that they would be entitled to apply for permanent residence after four years were told that they had to wait for one more year. There has been long term campaign against this change organised by those affected.

Nick Johnson, director of policy and public sector of CRE, told Ms Homer that the race equality assessment of the changes to the HSMP does not fully comply with the requiremens of the Race Equality Duty. Mr Johnson asked officials to respond within the month.

Amit Kapadia, spokesman for the highly-skilled migrants programme forum, said: “It is completely unfair. We are not against the government making immigration changes, but it is wrong to apply them retrospectively.

“People came on pledges made by the government - that they would be able to settle in four years - and have sold properties and brought their families. Now their plans have been devastated.”

The Guardian’s Tania Branigan reports:

Migrant scheme reforms may have breached law, CRE warns

The government breached anti-discrimination laws after controversial changes to its immigration programme for highly-skilled workers, the Commission for Racial Equality believes.

The watchdog has written to the Border and Immigration Agency’s director general, Lin Homer, warning that it carried out an inadequate assessment of reforms before their introduction late last year.

The highly-skilled migrants programme (HSMP) was launched in 2003 and allowed workers pledging to make Britain their main home to claim permanent residence after four years. But campaigners say up to 40,000 people already living in the country, such as entrepreneurs, IT specialists and scientists, have been affected by the retrospective application of new rules designed to stop abuse of the system.

Read the full report.