UK goes for point-based immigration

Employers knowingly engaging illegal migrants in the UK will face tougher penalties, including a fine upto 10,000 pounds...

Employers knowingly engaging illegal migrants in the UK will face tougher penalties, including a fine upto 10,000 pounds per worker or jail up to two years under a new points-based immigration system which became effective on Friday.

The penalty could be raised to an unlimited fine or jail, an official said. The British Government has earlier put up a fine of 5,000 pounds for firms hiring illegal immigrants in the country. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith described the new laws as “the biggest changes to British immigration policy in a generation, which includes a new deal for those migrants seeking citizenship here, a new UK border agency to strengthen controls at the borders and introduction of ID cards for foreign nationals”.

According to the new regulations, highly skilled migrants who wish to extend their stay in the Britain will have to have suitable employment. The points-based system will be tested for highly skilled migrants from India applying to work in the UK from April and would be extended to the rest of the world by the summer. The system will then be extended to other categories, including skilled workers with a job offer, the low-skilled, students and temporary workers.

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Indians and Bangladeshis running hotels and food chains in Britain will find it difficult to get low-skilled workers from the sub-continent under the new law and they will have to hire migrants from Eastern Europe. There are over 10,000 Indian restaurants in the UK.

Meanwhile, British Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said that the new regime of laws was based on a point-based system that had worked extremely well in Australia.

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