Press Release
Secret Cable plan could double flow of economic migrants 20 February, 2011
Just as the Prime Minister is promising that "this year the government is determined to help deliver many thousands of new jobs", Vince Cable is secretly negotiating a deal that will admit tens of thousands of Indian workers to Britain. The deal is part of a Free Trade Agreement being negotiated between the EU and India which is expected to be signed this spring. India is insisting on access for Indian workers as a condition of a wider agreement that would reduce tariffs on European products and lift some restrictions on businesses bidding for public procurement contracts. The proposed deal will allow Indian companies, which have obtained a service contract in Britain, to send over their own employees to do the work. This would cut out any opportunity for British workers and would also allow Indian companies to undercut British firms employing British workers by using cheaper migrant workers from India.
According to leaks from Brussels, the EU Commission is planning to offer India up to 40,000 work permits a year of which the Indians are demanding that the UK share should be 20,000. Negotiations are believed to be continuing between the Commission and the British government. As this is part of a trade agreement, Cable’s Business Department is in the lead. If the government cave in to Brussels the numbers admitted could double economic migration which the government have, after much debate, limited to 20,700 a year.
These visas will be limited to 12 months in any 24 month period so that these workers are not here long enough to be officially classified as immigrants. There are even suggestions that "independent consultants" should be allowed to come in under the same scheme. Significantly, the scheme would include the IT sector where British workers are already feeling the effects of immigrant Indian workers. The government already allow, at Cable’s insistence, an unrestricted flow of workers transferred between international companies for up to 12 months provided that they are paid £24,000 a year. These new arrangements would add further to that flow but, in this case, the arrangements would also be effectively irreversible because they would become part of a trade agreement that falls within "community competence".
The number of jobs in the economy is not fixed. Some new jobs might be created but this flow of cheap labour, however it is classified, is bound to affect the job prospects of British workers. Furthermore, with no exit checks there is no way to ensure the departure of these workers at the end of their contracts. Those who stayed on would add to the net migration that the government has committed to reduce to tens of thousands.
Commenting, Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch UK, said "The secrecy surrounding this deal has gone on long enough. Britain's 2.5 million unemployed have a right to know what is going on and to be told why the Prime Minister's pledges both to help create jobs and to cut back net immigration are being seriously undermined in this way. This scheme makes a nonsense of efforts to limit economic migration"
Notes to Editors
1 The Prime Minister held a meeting on the 10 January with business leaders at which he said "This year the government is determined to help deliver many thousands of new jobs and I am delighted that the companies joining me today are part of that. Across a whole range of areas you are going to see the most pro-business, pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda ever unleashed by a government…by developing the right skills and jobs I am determined that the many not the few will share in the country's prosperity."
2 Further back ground can be found in Briefing Paper {207}.
A selection of recent media reports
British jobs for whom?
Immigration isnt a topic much discussed nowadays, because its one where the Tories and Lib Dems dont agree. Thats a shame. Because theres an urgent problem to be fixed in the British labour market: that every time the economy grows, it sucks in immigrant workers. If this dysfunction continues, it will finish Cameron.
The Spectator (21-Feb-2011)
India wants thousands of extra EU visas under trade deal
India is reported to be demanding thousands of extra visas for its workers under a multi-billion pound trade deal it is negotiating with the European Union (EU).
The Hindu (21-Feb-2011)
Britain to grant 20,000 visas to Indian workers annually
Britain is set to welcome 20,000 extra Indian workers annually as part of a secretive trade deal brokered by the European Union (EU), a media report...
Irish Sun (21-Feb-2011)
CURRY BOSS: MUSLIM DUTY TO HIRE ILLEGALS
A RESTAURANT boss caught employing 35 illegal immigrants claimed he did it out of...
Daily Star (Jerry Lawton, Chief Crime Correspondent) (21-Feb-2011)
Britain 'to grant 20,000 visas to Indian workers as part of EU trade deal'
The UK is set to welcome 20,000 extra Indian workers a year due to a secretive trade...
Mail Online (Daily Mail Reporter) (20-Feb-2011)
Libya threatens to suspend EU migration cooperation
BRUSSELS, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Libya has told the European Union it will stop cooperation.
Alert Net - Trust.org (Source: reuters // Reuters) (20-Feb-2011)
Indians may get 20,000 visas under a deal with EU: Report
Indians may get upto 20,000 UK visas a year under a deal it is negotiating with the European Union and in return India has put forward an annual 4 billion pounds trade with the EU, media reported today.
Deccan Herald (20-Feb-2011)
Sir Andrew, the Peerless Expert
Former Ambassador Sir Andrew Green.....has expertise not only on immigration but also the Middle East.....
Daily Mail (20-Feb-2011)
UK to let in 20,000 skilled Indians yearly bypassing government's new immigration caps
Britain would reportedly allow thousands of Indians to enter the country every year under a European Union (EU) trade deal. The multibillion-pound EU India Free Trade Agreement, which was initiated by former Trade Commissioner Lord Mandelson in 2007, and is expected to be signed by the end of June, will...
Irish Sun (20-Feb-2011)
139 war criminals given the right to settle in Britain permanently
The Home Office has given 139 suspected war criminals the right to settle in Britain...
The People (Nigel Nelson) (20-Feb-2011)
BRITAIN TO LET IN 20,000 INDIANS
TENS of thousands of extra Indian migrants are to be allowed into the UK every year...
Scottish Daily Express (Ted Jeory, exclusive) (20-Feb-2011)
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