Walter Nandalike,  Editor-in-chief, Daijiworld.com
Pics : Tony Augustine and Brazil Gomes

London, Jul 23 : Claude Moraes is a powerful lawmaker in Europe, but few know that he is of Indian origin. A native of Jakribettu, Bantwal, Claude has been a European MP since 1999. We met him during our visit to London when one of our friends, Ron Rodrigues, introduced us during the historic Wilfy Nite held there earlier this month. Though we did not get much time to interact, he was extremely humble in expressing his love for his native.

"I visit my native place quietly without any fuss, and never show that I am a member of European Parliament. I have close connection with Bantwal. My parents were born and brought up there before they came to the UK to earn their livelihood," says Claude, who will turn 50 in a year's time.

"I regret that I cannot speak Konkani. Sometimes I do try to speak it, but I hardly understand anything. I never publicly claim that I am a Mangalurean or an Indian, because I am an MP for everyone," said Claude during our short tete-e-tete.

"I arrived in Scotland at the age of three from India with my parents Hilary Moraes and Theresa Moraes. I studied law at the University of Dundee, London (Birkbeck College) and the LSE," he said, when asked about his early days in the UK.

His father Hilary was born in Bantwal and his grandfather David Moreas was well-known in Jakribettu, Bantwal, where he had his own garment shop in Baddakette market and also actively involved in charity work.

Claude Moraes is a Labour member of European Parliament for London and chairman of the European Parliament's Justice and Home Affairs Committee. He was also deputy leader of the Labour Party in the European Parliament.

Prior to his election, he was director of the UK NGO the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. He was also a CRE commissioner and a national officer at the TUC in London.

After his law degree he settled in East London, Toynbee Hall, where he was later a trustee for a short time and became House of Commons researcher to MPs John Reid and Paul Boateng following the 1987 general election. Also, he coupled this with postgraduate studies in government and international law at Birkbeck College and the LSE. He then became a national officer at the TUC at Congress House and a representative to the ETUC in Brussels.

Prior to becoming an MEP, he attained a national campaigning and media profile as director of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) - a UK-based independent legal NGO founded in 1967 specialising in refugee and migration issues. At JCWI he helped organise key legal challenges in the UK and European courts. He succeeded Dame Anne Owers as director in 1992. At this time he was also executive secretary to the Immigrants' Aid Trust. Moraes was appointed a commissioner for Racial Equality while at JCWI. He was also an elected council member of Liberty during this period.

He contested the parliamentary constituency of Harrow West in the 1992 general election.

Moraes is an avid reader as well as writer. He has written regularly on migration and human rights issues and is a co-author of the Politics of Migration (Blackwells) and the JHA chapter of the EU After the Treaty of Lisbon (Cambridge University Press), and was a Tribune columnist.

Elected as MP in 1999, he holds the distinction of being the first South Asian elected as member of European Parliament (MEP), and London's first ethnic minority MEP. He was re-elected as a member of the European Parliament in 2004. In 2009, he was number one on the London list of Labour candidates in the European Parliamentary elections, being re-elected to the European Parliament for the third time. He led the London list going into the 2014 European elections and was elected for a fourth term.

Claude Moraes was the elected spokesperson for the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs from 2009-2014. In 2011 he was Dod's and the European Parliament Magazine's 'MEP of the Year' for his work on justice and civil liberties. He has chaired the European Parliament's All Party Groups (Intergroups) on Ageing and on Anti-Racism. His Parliamentary reports include the legislative report on the Protection of Seasonal Workers in the EU (2014).

In 2013 he was appointed rapporteur (lead) for the Parliament inquiry into mass surveillance following the leaks from Edward Snowden. The inquiry and his report "US NSA surveillance programmes, surveillance bodies in various Member States and their impact on EU citizens' fundamental rights and on transatlantic cooperation in Justice and Home Affairs" was approved with a large majority by the EP in March 2014 and is now often referred to as the Parliament's "European Digital Bill of Rights" as it looks at the future of key data, human rights and commercial priorities for the EU in the area of data protection, surveillance, governance of the internet, cybercrime, media freedom, scrutiny, anti-terrorism and technology.

In July 2014 he was elected chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE Committee).

"I am proud of my Mangaluru connection, and I feel extremely happy to meet Mangalureans. I am always willing to help people in need to the best of my ability," he says.

(With Wikipedia Inputs)