FSI Worldwide: Latest News

Gurkhas win High Court battle to stay in UK

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:55:00 +0200

Full article available at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/3110530/Gurkhas-win-High-Court-battle-to-stay-in-the-UK.html

Prince Harry safe with Gurkhas

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:38:00 +0100

THERE is "no safer place" to be than in the presence of Gurkhas, Prince Harry told reporters after his return from a 10-week tour in Afghanistan.

For their part, Gurkhas praised the 23-year-old royal for his good manners while Harry described their goat-curries as "fantastic" following a stint at an operating base in the southern province of Helmand just 500 metres from Taliban positions.

"When you know you are with the Gurkhas I think there's no safer place to be, really," he said.

"They're all armed with kukris, so if they run out of ammunition they will charge you with their 'massive swords', as the enemy call them."

Prince Harry sits with a group of Gurkha soldiers after firing a machine gun from the observation post on JTAC Hill, close to FOB Delhi (forward operating base), in Helmand province Southern Afghanistan.

The British Ministry of Defence extremely impressed

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:29:00 +0100

The British Ministry of Defence have been extremely impressed with the performance of our men from day one of this new and challenging contract supporting Pre Deployment Training for the British Army. Already the outstanding work of our Gurkhas is encouraging the MoD to further utilize our services in reducing the work load on the military.

Iraq Reconstruction medal

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:26:00 +0100

Our men working in Baghdad on the FCO contract with GW have all been awarded the Iraq Reconstruction medal thanks to their consistent outstanding performance over the period of the contract.

The Rising Nepal

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:00:00 +0200

Kathmandu, Sept. 19: Senior Civil Servant from the British Ministry of Defence and Colonel DG Hayes Wednesday invited representative of all Gurkha organisations and associations in the British Embassy Kathmandu to make an update on the situation regarding Gurkhas ex-servicemen.

In a press statement of United British Gurkha Ex-Servicemen's Association (UBGEAN) Nepal, the UK delegation focused on various points including the recent 19 per cent raise in the pension of the Gurkha soldiers by the Ministry of Defence.

During the meeting the UBGEAN strongly opposed the idea of percentage increase and said that they were fighting for equality and not percentage and would continue to fight as long as it was necessary, said the press statement.

The team highlighted that in future a new pension review system would be adopted to reflect the real market inflation and would soon sign a bilateral MOU with the Nepal government regarding the Gurkhas.

The delegation said that the pension could not be upgraded as the Gurkhas are already enjoying good pension as per the living standard in Nepal and that most institution here does not pay pension.

The UBGEAN also highlighted the problem faced by many Gurkhas who go to the UK to apply indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).
There have been cases where Gurkhas have been made to wait for as long as nine months to get a decision from the home office and finally told that their application has been rejected and are not allowed to appeal against the decision, said the press statement.