Highly skilled migrants are still being dragged through the courts under threat of deportation from the UK for making minor and legal amendments to their taxes, despite a government promise that cases would be paused.

Opposition MPs have said the continuation of the process “smacks of a government department unjustly and incorrectly misusing a draconian power” and “shamelessly ruining innocent people’s lives”.

Last month, Sajid Javid promised “all applications potentially falling for refusal under the character and conduct provisions of paragraph 322(5) … have been put on hold pending the findings of the current review”.

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The review, due to be completed by the end of May, has not yet reported. Applicants refused under 322(5), through which highly skilled migrants who have made minor mistakes in their taxes can be deported, are receiving letters saying it will now not conclude until July at the earliest.

However, despite Javid’s promise the Guardian has learned of a number of cases that are active. Among them are two brothers who came to the UK from Pakistan in 2006, who have been labelled as threats to the UK’s national security – by dint of their cases falling under anti-terror legislation – and told to immediately leave the country because they owed the HMRC £1.60 and £1.20.

Another case is that of Avais Kawos, a specialist NHS physiotherapist with two young children – one born in Britain – who has been forced to leave the UK under paragraph 322(5) for a legal tax amendment so minor that he didn’t owe the HMRC a penny in either fine or penalty.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The only cases which are on hold are those that have yet to be decided. We are continuing to defend refusals in court where we consider that the decision was correct, and it has been checked under the terms of the review.”

The Home Office’s ongoing use of 322(5) has angered politicians. SNP MP Alison Thewliss has organised a debate about the issue on Wednesday 13 June, which a number of MPs with constituents affected by 322(5) plan to attend.

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Thewliss said: “Reports have emerged that highly skilled migrants are still being pursued through the courts despite Sajid Javid’s assurance that applications would be put on hold pending the findings of the review. This is totally unacceptable, and calls into question the integrity of the entire process.

“If the Home Office has already completed its review of these cases, and found its own interpretation of the 322(5) rules to be fit and proper, then the terms of the review must be made public,” she said. “To everyone else, including the countless individuals and families caught up in this fiasco, these cases smack of a government department unjustly and incorrectly misusing a draconian power, with devastating effects for those on the receiving end.



“The government must take heed of how its hostile environment is shamelessly ruining innocent people’s lives,” she added. “We must speak out against this injustice.”

Yvette Cooper, the head of the home affairs select committee who has repeatedly questioned the Home Office about the use of paragraph 322(5), said: “What on earth is the Home Office up to? They can’t leave highly skilled workers in limbo like this while the review is delayed. And where the problem is about resolving tax errors they should let people carry on in their jobs while their cases are sorted out, not leave them to go destitute in the meantime.

“We’ve been raising for many weeks these real concerns about Home Office decisions to turn down highly skilled people working here for years over minor tax errors. People need to know urgently how long this is going to take.”

Kawos, who has been in the UK since 2007, corrected his tax returns himself in September 2015 when he discovered a small discrepancy during his preparations to apply for indefinite leave to remain (IRL). In December, the HMRC confirmed that the amendments had been made.

In February 2016, Kawos submitted his IRL application with the HMRC letter, stating the amendment had been made and that he had not been fined or made to pay a penalty. His application was refused, however, because the Home Office didn’t have access to updated HMRC records.

“The HMRC records that my case worker was using were at least three months out of date,” said Kawos. “I tried explaining this to them and told them to look at the HMRC letter I’d sent.”

Kawos was told his case would be deferred pending further checks but a decision was taken that same day to refuse him, under 322(5).

Facebook Twitter Pinterest NHS physiotherapist Avais Kawos with his family. Photograph: family photo

Kawos, who had been paying national insurance and tax on a salary in excess of £50,000, immediately lost his right to work, access the NHS or rent property. The financial cost of the battle to clear his name cast his family into destitution.

In August 2017, after surviving for a year and a half with no income while paying substantial legal bills on top of his family’s living costs, he used the last of his savings to buy one-way airplane tickets for his family back to India. “My only other option of survival was to stay, begging on the street,” he said.

“With a family of two kids, we tried our best to fight the battle because I knew I was innocent,” he said. He lamented the fact that his case had fallen under anti-terror legislation, saying: “Being a Muslim in today’s Islamophobic world with a tag of terrorist from UKVI [Visas and Immigration] is a terrible thing for me and my family’s future. It means not being eligible to apply to work or travel in any other country.

“I still have nightmares about being tagged as a terrorist for just an HMRC amendment which was completely legal in a civilised British society,” he added. “What was my mistake? An amendment which was legal, and I am alleged with terrorism. It has meant my career and future have come to a dead end.”

Still fighting his case from India – the court of appeal recently agreed to hear his case – Kawos is now living with his family in a one-bedroom flat earning £13 a day. “The quality of life I am able to provide to my family can very well be imagined,” he said. “My children have forgotten how to laugh or smile.”

