5 November 2010
Hasty immigration legislation such as the recent cap on migrant workers causes more problems than it solves, MPs on the home affairs select committee have warned.
Chair Keith Vaz said: ‘Successive governments have enacted changes to the immigration system with almost immediate effect, bypassing parliamentary conventions.
‘Such unnecessary haste leads to poor decision-making, which is more likely to be challenged in the courts.’
The government said in May that it would impose an annual limit on net immigration from outside the European Economic Area from next April.
As a temporary measure it imposed a cap in July of 24,100 highly skilled workers. The route for low-skilled workers was suspended indefinitely.
But in a report published on November 3, the committee said that without ‘e-borders’ it was impossible to count individuals out of the country, and that the government anyway used ‘one set of data for its immigration target (net long-term immigration) but is acting on another set (entry clearance visas issued) to implement a cap’.
The committee heard evidence that businesses and professions were damaged by the cap because it excluded people with essential skills.
The British Medical Association said the NHS had planned on the assumption that 500 medical graduates from overseas would continue their training in UK hospitals. These people might now be ineligible to remain.
The BMA’s international committee chair, Terry John, said: ‘The BMA shares the home affairs committee’s concerns that the immigration cap has been rushed through with insufficient attention to how it will work in practice.
‘We are particularly concerned that international graduates from UK medical schools may be unable to continue training.’
Universities UK chief executive Nicola Dandridge said: ‘World-class research requires world-class people, and we simply can't adopt a “fortress Britain” attitude.’
