LONDON : Hundreds in the academic fraternity have marked their protest to UK Home Office, over denying permanent residency to a Cambridge scholar, for overstayed in India.
Dr Asiya Islam claims the long time she spend in India was essential for fieldwork and research.
She reportedly supplied supporting documents to explain her absence, which was due to time spent in New Delhi for her PhD on “Geneer, Class and Labour in the New Economy of Urban India,”.
The refusal came last week when the 31-year-old applied for Indefinite Leave to Remain(ILR) at Home Office.
“I provided several letters to present the case that fieldwork is a crucial aspect of my work and should not county towards my days out of the country. But nope, apparently I failed to provide any exceptional reasons in support of my out of time application,” she said.
Asiya has been in UK for over a decade and has received a three-year Junior Research Fellowship after completing her PhD from Newnham College at the University of Cambridge this year.
The rebuke has caused widespread outrage in the academic community and hundreds of academics, students and activists have signed an open letter to the Home Office to reconsider its decision The litter now signed by over 900 academics is doing the rounds on social media too.
An ILR application under Tier 4 student visa category is normally turned down if an individual has been out of UK for more than 540 days over the course of 10 years.
