Tory “Immigration Cap” Lie Finally Collapses
The Conservative Party’s much-vaunted “immigration cap” policy has finally collapsed and that party has given up all pretence of controlling immigration with David Cameron’s announcement that intra-company transfers are to be “exempt” from all immigration rules.
Mr Cameron made the announcement before a surprised group of Tory MPs yesterday, who had all fought election campaigns on a promise to bring down immigration.“Intra-company transfers shouldn’t be included in what we are looking at,” Mr Cameron said in a discussion on the immigration cap.
The exemption of intra-company transfers from any immigration cap makes a complete mockery of the Tory election promise to slow down the immigration invasion of Britain.
Nearly 100,000 work related visas were issued last year, a significant number compared to net immigration of 196,000. Furthermore, over the past three years, intra-company transfers have allowed almost 350,000 non-EU workers to enter the UK.
The intra-company transfer system allows businesses (even foreign owned ones) to bring in as many workers as they like from outside, without having to fulfil all the normal immigration criteria.
Such criteria include checking to see if there are any British people qualified to do the job, what the salary levels are and what the standard of living levels are for these immigrants. The jobs do not even have to be advertised.
In 2009, over half of all intra-company transfer visas issued went to Indian IT workers, with 10,000 going to just three companies, Migrationwatch chairman Andrew Green said in a statement.
“They are clearly undercutting tens of thousands of unemployed UK IT workers while computer science graduates suffer the highest unemployment of any discipline, currently 16 per cent,” he added.
His opinion was reinforced by Marilyn Davidson, of the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (Apsco), which represents recruitment firms.
“The immigration cap will largely be an empty political gesture that will do little to restrict the influx of non-EU IT workers to the UK,” Ms Davidson said.
According to data obtained by Apsco from the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act, 35,430 non-EU IT workers came to work in the UK in 2008 alone.
“Most of these were low to mid-level workers, which goes against the grain of why this system was set up and these suppliers are taking the mickey,” said Ann Swain, chief executive of Apsco.
The collapse of the Tory “immigration cap” lie comes hot on the heels of a Westminster home affairs committee report which proved that even if fully implemented, the “immigration cap” would only cut overall immigration by as little as 1 percent.
Only 20 per cent of the 500,000 migrants who arrive annually will be covered by the cap, let alone barred from entering the UK, the report said.
Are there any Tory MPs left with even a smattering of a conscience? If so, now is the time to speak up
