Picture of despair: 24 Gurkhas living in desperate poverty in country they fought for (so why won't Joanna Lumley speak out now?)

By Sue Reid for The Mail on Sunday
Updated: 06:46 EDT, 18 March 2010

They pose for a photograph, looking as dignified as their frail bodies will allow, in the centre of the British Army town which they now call home. Forgotten and alone, the old Nepalese soldiers spend their nights in decrepit bedsits and their days searching for something they can afford to eat.

What a sorry plight for the proud Gurkhas who fought for Britain and won the right to settle here last year. No wonder they are growing angry and the name on their lips is Joanna Lumley, the English actress they once hailed as a goddess. They accuse her of staying 'chup' (or 'silent' in Nepalese) as they complain of their conditions in Aldershot, Hampshire.

Begging for help, they blame the Absolutely Fabulous star for a string of broken promises that have left them cold, hungry and penniless in Britain.

Hard up: The men find Britain at odds with the idyllic existence they expected

'She told us to come here and we are stranded in your country with nothing,' said Padam Bahadur Limbu, his 66-year-old face etched with fear and worry. 'We would like to speak to Joanna Lumley and tell her we have been betrayed.'

Padam is caught up in a heartbreaking human tragedy. He is one of thousands of Gurkhas who was promised a wonderful new life in the UK during a campaign spearheaded by Ms Lumley last year. With massive public backing, it forced the Government to give every Nepalese warrior the right to settle in this country.

Within weeks, the veterans began arriving, their heads filled with dreams for the future. The campaigners had told the Gurkhas they would get pensions and state houses and have a comfortable retirement.

Astonishingly in the current financial climate, they were advised they would get jobs paying £1,000 a month.

Yet the reality is so cruelly different. Most of the veterans have never received a penny - nor since caught a glimpse of the people who coerced them into uprooting across the world. Many cannot even afford a cup of tea from the cheapest cafe. All they have left is the clothes they stand up in, bought on the market stalls of Nepal.

They have nowhere to live apart from dingy rooms rented for hundreds of pounds a week. After selling all their possessions and borrowing huge sums at high interest to come here, the veterans are struggling to survive.

All smiles: Joanna Lumley was the face of the Gurkhas' fight, but has been strangely silent since concerns started being voiced

Last week, Defence Minister Kevan Jones ordered an inquiry into the sad scandal amid allegations of ruthless exploitation of the ageing Gurkhas, and today he plans to visit Aldershot to see their plight for himself.

Earlier, in a private letter to Whitehall colleagues, he warned that 'unscrupulous elements' in Nepal have created 'unrealistic expectations' about British life and what services might be offered to them here.

The inquiry will centre on the unconventional £500-a-head payments charged by their own veterans' charity in Nepal for advice on moving to Britain. It will also examine why more than £1million in Legal Aid fees has been paid by British taxpayers to a London firm of human rights' lawyers for assisting Gurkhas to fill in visa application forms at Gaeso offices before they travelled from Nepal.

Meanwhile, Joanna Lumley, who campaigned alongside both officials of the charity the Gurkha Army Ex-Servicemen's Organisation (Gaeso) and partners of the law firm Howe and Co of Ealing, is under mounting pressure over her curious reluctance to speak out about the veterans' plight, first exposed during an investigation by the Mail last month.

Ms Lumley is closely linked to Howe and Co. She approached the law firm to offer her help when the campaign to bring the Gurkhas here was flagging. Within weeks she was being pictured with their senior partners at events to raise the profile of the Gurkha Justice Campaign.

Even now, calls by this newspaper to ask for her views elicit a response from the law firm but a steadfast refusal from her to speak out.

The firm's Martin Howe has told the Mail that he has never taken a penny from any Gurkha or from Gaeso.

However, he confirmed his firm has received huge amounts of Legal Aid for helping with their UK visa applications.

Kevan Jones last week told the Commons he was 'irritated' by the 'deafening silence' from the actress. It was all so different last summer, when Ms Lumley stood outside Parliament, celebrating the Gurkhas' victory.

No money: 67 year-old Nepalese farmer and ex-British army Gurkha Uman Singh Gurung in his mouldy Aldershot bedsit

She was later taken on a 'thank-you' tour of Nepal by Gaeso to mark the highly successful campaign. How the waiting Gurkhas cheered their heroine when they saw her. In the capital, Kathmandu, and the second city, Pokhara, she stepped off her plane garlanded in the traditional marigold necklace of the Himalayan kingdom to greet the old soldiers who waved banners calling her their goddess and daughter of their country.

There, watching her with delight was Padam and his fellow Gurkha Guru Bahadur Thapa, who both came to Britain last November.There's no doubt that Ms Lumley's campaign was well-intentioned.

Alas, the fear is that her victory has been exploited by unscrupulous middlemen who have given Gurkhas an unrealistic expectation of what life in Britain would be like. And now many of those old warriors who have paid thousands of pounds to move here are bitter and disillusioned.

As Mr Thapa, 66, told me sadly: 'I sold my house, land, everything because of what the campaigners told me. But after just a few months here, I have none of the money left.

'I have rented a room with a shower with another Gurkha for £580 a month from the local estate agent. I do not know how I will pay the rent next month unless I get some pension money from your Government.

'I have not eaten today because I cannot afford food. At the Nepalese supermarket in Aldershot they are giving Gurkhas credit for a little fruit and bread. We were not told it would be like this. We feel we have been duped by Joanna Lumley and her campaigners. We are deeply disappointed. Where is our Joanna now?'

He is among 400 Gurkhas who have headed to the towns surrounding Aldershot and parts of London. Since leaving the British Army, the majority have eked out a meagre living as peasant farmers earning 35p a day by keeping a cow or a few goats and ploughing a small tract of land in Nepal's mountainous villages.

Yet they show an amazing loyalty to Britain. Each Gurkha carries a plastic bag containing a small red booklet called a Lal Kitab. It is the record of his military career and proof that he was once a soldier in the British Army. Few of them can even read the English words inside, for they had never stepped foot in Britain, and half of the Gurkhas are illiterate.

'This shows I once fought for your Queen Elizabeth II,' one 67-year-old told me solemnly yesterday through an interpreter. His booklet states that he served for six years from 1968 with exemplary conduct, leaving as a 24-year-old in 1974 when Army numbers were cut.

He was discharged from Hong Kong, the Brigade of Gurkhas' base until the hand-over of the island by Britain to China in 1997, when it moved to Aldershot and later Yorkshire.

It was in recognition of such service that the Mail and huge numbers of people supported Joanna Lumley and the campaign. For 200 years, the Gurkhas have fought valiantly for Britain, losing 50,000 men in the last century alone during two world wars and numerous skirmishes in the Far East. People believed it would repay a debt of honour if they were welcomed into this country if that was their wish.

Concerned: Defence minister Kevan Jones has claimed some of the advice being given to Gurkha veterans hoping to settle in the UK was misleading

The campaign had a particular poignancy for Miss Lumley. Her father, Major James Rutherford Lumley, was an officer in the 6th Gurkha Rifles. Serving in Burma during World War II, his life was saved by fellow Gurkhas, including one who received the Victoria Cross for his valour.

With charm and determination, she forced Gordon Brown's Government into a dramatic turnabout-and 36,000 of the old men, their wives and dependants are expected eventually to settle here. More than 4,000 have applied for UK visas since the Lumley campaign and thousands have already arrived. But it is a journey that too often ends tragically.

Dr Hugh Milroy, the head of Veterans' Aid - a London-based charity helping former servicemen - explained to the Mail: 'We see about one new Gurkha a week struggling to survive in this country.

The most extreme case involved a family man who arrived with borrowed money but no English. His mental and physical health deteriorated rapidly. After several months he ended up on the streets.

This man was totally unequipped to deal with life in modern Britain, and he was so badly traumatised by his experiences here that he eventually asked to be flown back to Nepal.

'We gave him new clothes for his flight. All he left behind were two flea-ridden blankets and a jacket with pockets full of cigarette ends picked up from the streets.

'Staff at Veterans' Aid are used to dealing with the street homeless. But many were shocked and moved to tears by his plight. He was a truly broken human being.

'It is not our job to assign blame, but it was clear from the start that this man didn't have the resources or skills to live in Britain, where life is complex and expensive.'

What a different story is being woven in Nepal. I have interviewed dozens of the Gurkha veterans there and in Britain. The majority insisted that they had received promises from the Gurkha's veterans association Gaeso and by the English lawyers at Howe & Co about getting work, houses, and benefits in the UK - yet hardly any have received a penny.

The local council in the Aldershot area, Rushmoor, agrees it is struggling to cope with language barriers and numbers. Often the council has been able to offer only a bus pass.

Typical is Bhoj Poudel, 63, who arrived in Britain last November. He says: 'We were told in the Gaeso offices in Nepal to come to Aldershot and we could claim a pension here. We were told we would find work. We were excited.

'The Government would give us a home to live in. Our families? We planned to bring them soon, too. But nothing has gone right for us.'

In a nearby coffee bar, I found Kul Bahadur Ale, who is in much the same state. He is 63 and is blinded in one eye from a scything accident on his small farm. The idea of him ever finding work is ludicrous.

He has left a wife, son and daughter behind in Baglung, Nepal. He borrowed huge sums to come here, money that he admits he will never be able to repay. 'I walked two-and-a-half days to get to the bus stop to catch a bus to Pokhara where there is an office of Gaeso. There, they told me to pay 60,000 rupees (£500) for 'advice and paperwork'. Once I had given them the cash, I was sent to the next office to see an English-speaking solicitor. He helped me fill in the visa settlement forms.

'So many Gurkhas in Nepal believe they have to go through this process. They are told by Gaeso they will not get a UK visa unless they do.

'We all believed we would have good life in your country, with social benefits and work. I heard it from the Gaeso officials and the lawyer, and so have all my friends.'

Sitting beside him was his cousin Padam Pun, 62. He comes from the same village as Mr Ale, and also arrived four months ago.

'I have a wife and three children in Nepal,' he says sadly. 'I borrowed money from friends to pay the Gaeso fee, the UK visa cost of £480 and the single air ticket of £350, too. I have not received any social benefits and I rent a room for so much money.'

Then he adds, with a shake of his gnarled head: 'I miss my family so much. I don't know whether I will ever see them again.

'I do not have the money to go back or to bring them over here. We may be apart for ever.'

Those words are enough to chill the heart of any caring person. No wonder that the frail Gurkhas are growing angry with Joanna Lumley and her continuing, baffling, silence. Now it remains to be seen who will actually help the old soldiers who once helped Britain.