Tahil: Cloud on future

London, Oct. 19: Dalip Tahil, who came to Britain quite legitimately in early 2002 to play a key role in Andrew Lloyd Webber?s then landmark musical, Bombay Dreams, was today in danger of being sent back to Mumbai if he fails to overturn a home office decision refusing him permission to stay on in the UK.

The 51-year-old actor, who has starred in an estimated 100 Bollywood movies, was making his case today before an independent Immigration Appellate Authority (IAA) in London.

Before the start of the hearing, he said: ?I?m being dealt with in a manner which is very harsh. I?m not a criminal, I?m just a jobbing actor who, due to bad advice from my previous solicitors, has been put in this position.?

Tahil, who has been taken off the popular BBC soap Eastenders, in which he was playing Dan Ferreira, the head of a Goan family with a brood of unruly children, is appealing against the home office decision to refuse him a work permit.

The home office argument is that when Tahil left Bombay Dreams after a year and joined the cast of the BBC soap, he should have applied for a new work permit. Tahil feels the fault was not his. He is also furious at the apparently ?jealous? behaviour of a handful of British Asian actors, who have complained to their union, Equity, that the well-paid job of Dan Ferreira should have gone to one of them and not to ?an outsider from Bollywood?.

The BBC showed loyalty and stuck with Ferreira although it has dropped him from the soap ? viewers were told he had ?gone to Goa? and could not be found ? and even spoke up for him. But Equity backed the local British actors, and, ultimately, the home office ruled that Tahil would have to return to India.

The problem for him is that he has made fundamental changes in his life style, including admitting his young sports-mad son to an expensive British public school where the boy is flourishing. Tahil feels that even on compassionate grounds, he should be allowed to work in Britain and stay close to his son.

?I feel I?m in the situation because it is a high-profile case and because the home office perhaps wants to be seen not to be doing anything special for me, they have actually tried to make an example of me with no evidence of any wrongdoing,? he claimed. ?My leave to remain in Britain has been denied to me under the Highly Skilled Migrant programme on the grounds that I am a consistent offender but there is no evidence for that. That decision is baseless and there are no facts to substantiate their refusals.?

The BBC made a retrospective application to home office agency Work Permits UK, but was unsuccessful. Now the Ferreira family itself is to be written out of Eastenders.

?I?m hugely hurt,? said Tahil, who wanted to return to his native Mumbai as a conquering hero after his triumphant performance in Bombay Dreams and a high-profile role in Eastenders. ?To be treated in this manner by the home office is something I find baffling. It?s really come to the stage where I?m being made an example of and I?ve done nothing wrong.?

He went on: ?My plea to the home office is that the decision should be made on its merits and not on the basis that I am a well-known personality and that an example should be made of me. I?ve never asked for preferential treatment because I am an actor and by the same yardstick I shouldn?t be dealt with harshly because I am an actor.?

Tahil told the IAA today that his previous solicitor, named only as ?Mr B?, had made a series of errors over his visa application. The man had been suspended from his law firm and is currently under investigation by the Law Society.

Laurie Fransman QC, representing Tahil, informed the IAA that the visa application was never made, although ?Mr B? told his client it had simply been rejected.

Fransman said ?Mr B?, who worked for Seymours Solicitors, had tried to delete files from his computer when Tahil?s new solicitors, Bates, Wells & Braithwaite made a complaint. When asked by his own firm why he had deleted the files, ?Mr B? claimed an MI5 agent had threatened to place material on his hard disk which would ruin his career. This excuse did not impress ?Mr B?s? boss who suspended his employee.

In his evidence, Tahil said he would never have worked in the UK without the appropriate documentation.

?If I had a dubious or dodgy reputation I can assure you I would have not been in Bombay Dreams, very certainly would not have been working in Eastenders,? he said. ?I completely depend on my reputation for my career ? it is very important for me.?

Colin Trent, for the home office, defended the immigration service, saying the officials were simply doing their jobs.

The chairman of the tribunal, Michael Clements, said he would give his ruling in two weeks.