UK: Once honored by the Queen for helping families during Covid, Indian shopkeeper faces threat of deportation

A 42-year-old Indian shopkeeper, who was previously honoured by Queen Elizabeth II for aiding 50 families by providing them food free of cost during the Covid-19 pandemic, may be facing deportation to India.

After losing an immigration appeal in the UK, Vimal Pandya may be looking at deportation back to his home country as the College he came to on a student visa back in 2011 lost its right to sponsor foreign students. The college’s right was revoked some three years later by the UK Home Office, media outlets report.

Currently living in Rotherhithe, South London, Pandya, who once helped 50 vulnerable families through the pandemic by providing them food free of cost, has been fighting deportation for the past nine years, media reports add.

At a hearing for his appeal at the tribunal hearing in Hatton Cross, south-west London, Judge Adrian Seelhoff determined that Pandya had been working “illegally for many years” in the UK. Therefore, the 42-year-old has 28 days from the date of the verdict, January 24, to challenge the verdict, after which he may be subject to removal by the home office.

“Considering all the factors in this case in the round and despite the Appellant’s impressive achievements, I am not satisfied that they outweigh the public interest in immigration control when viewed in the context of a full and informed assessment of all the facts of the case. As a consequence I dismiss the appeal,” the Judge had stated regarding the immigration appeal.

Pandya’s appeal has garnered support, not only locally but all across the UK, with a petition filed for the same accruing 1,75,000 signatures.

“I can’t sleep at night because of this endless torture and misery. They can deport me at any time and send me back home – it’s really scary…I have worked very hard to survive in this world. Altogether I have spent 42,000 Pound on legal fees. Even criminals don’t have to spend that much,” Pandya had previously expressed to media outlets.

Back in 2011, Pandya had enrolled in a management course at a college that went out of business after he had paid the fees for the same. He had then found another college willing to sponsor his stay in the country but, after a return trip to India in 2014, the UK Border Force informed Pandya that his sponsorship had been revoked.

According to a Change.org petition in support of Pandya, he had not been informed of this change either by the UK Home Office or his college.