Britain urged to relax visa rules for skilled migrants
January 23rd, 2009 - 6:07 pm ICT by IANSLondon, Jan 23 (IANS) The British government should relax visa regulations for highly skilled workers from India and other countries outside Europe, who face joblessness or cuts in salaries because of the credit crunch, a lobby group said Friday.The Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) Forum said in a statement that visa extension rules that require evidence of high salaries or incomes from doctors, engineers and other professionals were unrealistic in the current economic climate.
With companies going into liquidation and reports of a difficult economic climate ahead, “migrants from outside the European region are the first to face salary cuts and redundancies”, the forum said.
Forum executive director Amit Kapadia said skilled non-European migrants who are in Britain under a Points Based System “are finding it extremely difficult to obtain their further extensions due to the present stringent rules, which do not take into consideration the current economic downturn”.
The majority of such migrants are from India.
“To avoid further penalising the migrants, it will be only fair if those immigration rules are somewhat relaxed by acknowledging the difficulties that migrants are undergoing in the present economic climate,” Kapadia said.
“The credit crunch affects everyone from natural born citizen to immigrant,” he added.
- 'British proposals could hit legal migrants in recession' - Nov 18, 2009
- Britain may limit non-EU immigrants - Jan 21, 2011
- Britain to review rejected immigration pleas - Jul 25, 2010
- UK's new proposals to protect Brit workers may hit skilled Indian migrants - Feb 08, 2011
- 160,000 Britons lost jobs to migrants in five years - Jan 11, 2012
- Britain allays India's visa concerns - Aug 23, 2010
- 'Fresh bid to stop Indian professionals from settling in Britain' - Aug 21, 2009
- 181,000 migrants 'may have overstayed visas': UK Border Agency - Mar 15, 2011
- UK decision to cap non-EU immigrants may hit Indian students - Sep 06, 2010
- Many skilled migrants in Britain work in lowly posts - Oct 28, 2010
- 100,000 Indians take British government to court - Mar 01, 2008
- Australia eases norms to woo highly-skilled immigrants - Jun 17, 2011
- Only 25 pc 'highly skilled migrants' from India, Pak end up in top job in UK, says report - Oct 28, 2010
- Sharma conveys Indian concern to Britain on immigration cap - Jun 29, 2010
- HSMP migrants take British government back to court - Oct 23, 2008
Tags: born citizen, british government, credit crunch, economic climate, economic downturn, european migrants, immigrant, immigration rules, incomes, joblessness, lobby group, london jan, salaries, salary cuts, skilled migrants, skilled workers, stringent rules, visa extension, visa regulations, visa rules
