Immigrants can enter Britain in 73 ways

Among the 73 are special programmes for diplomats8217; household servants; sportsmen and entertainers; and employees of the Jewish Agency. Students who need to resit examinations or write up a thesis are specially provided for.

According to official statistics, among 713,000 foreigners who came to work in Britain last year, the leading nationalities were Indians 49,000, Slovakians 29,000, Pakistanis 25,000 and Australians 24,000.

A Home Office spokesman admitted that the system was 8216;quite complex8217;. 8220;The separate schemes are due to be replaced by 2009 with a single 8216;points-based system8217;, which would make the controls efficient, easier to understand, and stronger.8221;

Under the 8216;points-based system8217;, all applicants will be allocated to one of only five tiers: highly skilled individuals; skilled workers; low-skilled workers to fill temporary labour shortages; students; and short-term workers allowed in for 8220;non-economic8221; reasons.

In fact, the publication of the list followed a bruising week for the ruling Labour Party, in which a Minister had to apologise for getting his figures wrong and town hall chiefs complained they8217;re struggling to cope with the influx.

It may be mentioned that Peter Hain, the Work and

Pensions Secretary, was forced to admit last week that the number of foreign workers in Britain had risen over the past decade by 1.1 million, not 800,000 as he had earlier told MPs.