‘We want the right to choose’

Joe Willis talks to former soldier Ajitkumar Limbu about the issues facing his countrymen.

BEING chosen to fight for Britain is a proud moment for a young Nepalese man. Ajitkumar Limbu was one of 700 applicants competing for only 45 places in the Brigade of Gurkhas. His acceptance as a military clerk continued a long family tradition. His grandfather and uncles served with the British Army, while his father fought with the Indian army’s own Gurkha Brigade.

After undergoing a year of training in Hong Kong, Mr Limbu settled into his Army career and, over the next two decades, saw service in Hong Kong, Germany, Brunei, Cyprus, Nepal and in Iraq, during the first Gulf War.

In 2005, after 21 years of service, Warrant Officer II Limbu retired and was allowed to settle in the UK, setting up home in Catterick Garrison, in North Yorkshire, where he still lives with his wife and two children, and where he works as a Ministry of Defence guard.

He looks back on his career with pride.

“I have absolutely no regrets about my time in the Brigade of Gurkhas. It made me a better person and it allowed me to look at life from high above,” he says.

“Yes, there were difficult times, physically and mentally, but I made lots of friends and I had lots of new experiences that I would never have had as a civilian.”

However, while he was allowed to stay in the UK, thousands of his countrymen who served Britain are prevented from settling here.

In 2004, Prime Minister Tony Blair took the decision to allow all Gurkhas who retired after 1997 to live permanently in Britain. While the move was welcomed, it meant that Gurkhas who retired before this date could not follow their comrades, provoking growing anger among former Gurkhas and their supporters, who include actress Joanna Lumley.

She and others are demanding that the Government allows all former Gurkhas who retired before 1997 to live in Britain.

Mr Limbu says: “Before 2004 I used to ask myself why are we not allowed to live in Britain.

It was a very traumatic period. We had no idea if we could settle here.

“I am very grateful to Tony Blair – it was a very euphoric feeling. We felt justice had been done and that at last somebody had recognised the sacrifices that we made.”

But Mr Limbu says there is no difference between himself and his countrymen who retired before him. “We came from the same country and served the same Queen,” he says. “They fought for this country – some died for this country – and they should be offered the chance to live in this country.”

The ex-soldier says the Government was wrong to suggest the country would face a deluge of applications for residency from retired Gurkhas if the law was altered.

“There’s a belief that everyone will catch the next plane to Britain and swamp the country,”

he says. “But the reality couldn’t be further away than that.”

He says many older Gurkhas would stay in Nepal, or the country they had chosen to settle in after leaving the Army.

He describes Britain as a “frying pan” where he has to work long hours to provide for his family, as opposed to Nepal, where he would be able to live a “simple life”.

However, he says he has chosen to live in Britain because he feels it is the right place for his children to grow up, and that he would now feel out of place if he went back to Nepal.

“The truth is that Nepal is a third world country and Britain is developed, and everybody wants the best for their children,” he says.

The most important thing is for Gurkhas to have the “personal choice” of where to live he says. “I may go back one day, but my friends may like to stay – it’s the personal choice that we fought so hard for.”

Mr Limbu says the Gurkha pension is another burning issue for him and his friends. In order to qualify for a full pension, British-born soldiers must serve for 22 years.

However, Mr Limbu was not allowed to serve more than 21 years. He also receives a rate equal to his British colleagues only for the years he served after 1997, receiving a smaller fraction for the years he served beforehand.

This means he gets about a third of what he would if he were born in this country.

He says: “This makes me feel betrayed and to be honest – and rude – it makes me feel shafted.

I’m not greedy and I’m happy to receive what I receive, but somebody has yet to make me understand why we are only entitled to this amount.”

Mr Limbu and his wife, Adelaida, are among a growing number of ex-Gurkha families who have made their home in the region.

He is general secretary of the Catterick Garrison and Darlington branch of the British Gurkha and Nepalese Community, which now has 68 member families.

Members work hard to integrate with the wider community, which Mr Limbu says has always given a warm welcome to Gurkhas.

“We tell people that it is important to integrate.

We can’t say ‘we’re Gurkhas and we do that, but don’t do that’. I always say we are pioneers – we are the first Gurkhas to settle here.

We are under the gaze of the British public and we need to do well.

“We were embraced and we were taken into the community and we have always felt very welcome.

“Now we want to give something back.”