Ex-Gurkhas receive reprieve after government pauses their expulsion

Ten Nepalese security guards who were evacuated to Britain after fall of Kabul had been served with papers ordering their removal from the country

The British Embassy in Kabul helped organise the evacuation in 2021. Getty Images

The UK has halted the expulsion of a group of Nepalese security guards who were evacuated to Britain following the fall of Kabul.

The 13 former Gurkha soldiers guarded a compound housing the UK and Canadian embassies in the Afghan capital until the Taliban takeover in 2021, when they were rescued and brought to the UK.

Last week, 10 of them were detained in handcuffs after a raid on a west London hotel where they had been living and working as cooks for Afghan refugees living there.

Immigration officials served them with papers ordering their removal to Nepal and India.

But on Thursday the government said that the operation had now been “paused”.

"Removal of this cohort has been paused, pending further review," said the Home Office.

The Gurkhas have earned a reputation for fierce fighting, loyalty and bravery since they first served as part of the Indian army in British-ruled India in 1815.

About 200,000 have fought alongside British troops in both world wars, as well as the conflicts in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are about 4,000 currently enlisted in Britain's armed forces, according to the British Army, which says the Brigade of Gurkhas is a “unique organisation … with a reputation of being amongst the finest and most feared soldiers in the world”.

The army's website says: "All Gurkhas are recruited from Nepal, with many thousands of young people attempting selection every year for only a few hundred job opportunities.

"All Gurkhas are firstly trained at Infanteers at Catterick and then are allocated to their Regiments and Corps as part of the Brigade of Gurkhas, but often working within other organisations of the Army."

A lawyer for some of the group, Jamie Bell, said he was "delighted" by the decision, but added "the men have been offered no assurances that they will be given leave to remain".

He added: "All 10 of them remain in detention. The Home Office should have to answer for the way they have treated these men."

The UK has taken in 25,000 people from Afghanistan under two resettlement schemes set up after the Taliban takeover.

One focuses on women, children and religious minorities — the scheme under which the Nepalese men's asylum claims were being processed — and the other on Afghans who worked for the British military and government.

In 2021, demonstrations were held to call for equal rights for Gurkha soldiers, who historically received a fraction of the pension given to British-born soldiers.

The imbalance has been resolved, but any soldier who left the British Army before 1997 still received a vastly reduced pension stipend.