Low-skilled migrants will still be able to get short-term visas after Brexit: New plans will also include no cap on highly-skilled workers from anywhere in the world
- Low-skilled migrants to come to UK if they have no history of immigration abuse
- Will get handed short-term visas of up to a year but must leave after these expire
- Part of approach to immigration ‘based on skills, not where people come from’
Short-term visas for low-skilled migrant workers will still be available after Brexit according to immigration plans to be unveiled this week.
The move comes after ministers weakened a proposal from the Migration Advisory Committee in September that suggested low-skilled migrants should have no route into the UK.
Ministers later reached a deal to soften the plan, triggering controversial discussions within the Government about what limits there should be.
There will be no cap on highly-skilled migrants from anywhere in the world, the Home Secretary is set to announce.
There will be no cap on highly-skilled migrants from anywhere in the world, the Home Secretary is set to announce
This is part of an approach to immigration which Sajid Javid says will be ‘based on skills, not where people come from’ while marking an end to free movement from the EU.
Low-skilled migrants will be able to come to the UK under the scheme, as long they have no history of immigration abuse.
These people will get handed short-term visas of up to a year, but after these expire they must leave the country and cannot return for up to a year.
The Treasury and the Home Office have been arguing about whether ‘medium-skilled’ migrants should have to show they are earning £30,000.
A decision on that may not be in this week’s policy launch as the departments try to reach an agreement in the coming days.
Claims that 80 per cent of EU migrants could be stopped from coming to Britain were ‘way over the top’, a Home Office source told The Times.
Downing Street is set on selling the policy as a crackdown on immigration in order to shore up support for Theresa May’s Brexit deal
Downing Street is set on selling the policy as a crackdown on immigration in order to shore up support for Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
A number of Government departments who are trying to sell Britain as open for business post-Brexit are not impressed with a supposed immigration crackdown.
Mrs May has long supported a cap of ‘tens of thousands’ of migrants entering the UK every year which has put her at odds with members of the Cabinet including the Home Secretary, who refuses to use the slogan.
Surveys suggest the public does not have a problem with high-skilled migration into the UK which is why there will be no cap on the number of such individuals coming in.