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UK’s Migrant Policy
UK plans new crackdown on migrants
The UK unveiled plans in October 2016 to further crackdown on immigration through “work and study routes” from non-European Union nations. The move will make it difficult for British firms to hire professionals from countries like India. Britain’s Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the Annual Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham that she would be looking at a range of options to cut migration. “Leaving the EU is just one part of the strategy. We will be looking across work and study routes. This will include examining whether we should tighten the test companies have to take before recruiting from abroad”, Rudd said. “The test should ensure people coming here are filling gaps in the labour jobs British people could do. But it has become a tick box exercise, allowing some firms to get away with not training local people. We won’t win in the world if we don’t move more to up-skill our own workforce… I want us to look again at whether our immigration system provides the right incentives for businesses to invest in UK workers”, she said. She also announced that from December, landlords who knowingly rent out property to people who have not right to be in UK would be committing a criminal offence and could go to prison. Immigration checks will be a mandatory requirement for those wanting to get a licence to drive a taxi. From next year, banks will have to do regular checks to ensure they are not providing essential banking services to illegal migrants. The crackdown will affect students from India planning to study in the UK; their numbers are already at an all time low. “We will also look for the first time at whether our student be tailored to the quality of the course and the quality of the educational institution… We need to look at whether this one size fits all approach is right for the hundreds of different courses across the country”, the minister said. However, she stressed the new rules would be brought in after consultation with businesses and universities. “This isn’t about pulling up the drawbridge. It’s about making sure students that come here, come to study,” the home secretary said. For migration within the EU, the home minister unveiled plans to overhaul legislation to make it easier to deport criminals and those who abuse UK laws while Britain negotiates it complete exit from the bloc.
These have been restructured from various articles, especially from The New York Times and The Independent.
