I think Alex Cruz is choosing his words carefully. There may well be local staff working on local systems. Those local staff are likely to be onshore Indian contractors. The permanent BA staff have been thinned out greatly by redundancies so TCS contractors are filling the gaps. They will have been onshore for no more than a few months due to visa restrictions.
I also agree rumour is credible. BA lost the watchlist for a weekend due to incorrect procedures being followed by a contractor.
Many BA IT staff are choosing to take redundancy rather than gamble on a now somewhat flimsy career path. The IAG head of BA IT was once the head of cabin crew during the 2010 dispute. He's determined to get 91m euro savings over a 3 year period. Just as well, those savings are going to be needed now.