Exposed: Tory’s “Temporary Cap” on Immigration Is a Hoax
The Tory “temporary immigration cap” to Britain has been exposed as yet another hoax with the Home Office confession that it excludes Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) programmes, which in 2008 let 43,495 non-EU workers into Britain, nearly 20,000 more than the Conservative’s stated “cap” limit.
ICT transfers allow foreign companies with offices in Britain to transfer their own employees to here from anywhere in the world. ICT transfers are over and above what the ConDem regime seeks to keep as a “cap” limit of 24,400. The depth of the Tory deception became apparent with a comparison between the figures quoted by Home Secretary Theresa and the number of Indian IT workers allowed into Britain under the ICT scheme.
Figures released last August by Ann Swain, chief executive of the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), showed that ICT programmes resulted in the transfer of 29,240 foreign IT workers alone into Britain during the during the 2008/2009 year.
According to Ms Swain, IT workers in particular accounted for the importation of non-European workers into the UK at twice the rate of all other types of professional skills combined.
“Despite the downturn creating an ample supply of settled UK IT staff, almost 30,000 computer workers from outside of the European Union were brought to the country in 2008,” Ms Swain said.
This figure, Ms Swain said, was more than double the number (14,255) who entered the UK on ICTs that year to work in all the other professional service sectors, including telecoms, combined.
This means that in one year, 43,495 non-EU workers entered Britain using the ICT programme.
Under current ICT rules, employers can effectively bypass UK job-seekers, who command higher pay than their overseas counterparts, as they have no obligation to advertise the roles.
Unlike other non-EU workers who must be employed at the company for a year before they can be transferred, graduates would be eligible for an ICT from the third month of work.
“The irony is that while graduate level IT jobs are being outsourced to India it is now being proposed that it should be easier for Indian IT graduates to work in the UK at a time when there are few if any skill shortages at that level,” Ms Swain said last year.
One Indian company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), sponsored 4,600 of its employees to come to Britain in 2008 through ICTs, according to new Home Office data.
Another Indian company, Infosys Technologies Limited, sponsored 3,235 foreigners to come to the UK in the same year, while a third, Wipro Technologies, brought in 2,420.
Indians make up 70 percent of the migrants brought to Britain on ICTs, while others are from nations including the US, South Africa, Japan and China.
