EU says it’s open to taking in more Indian IT workers
New Delhi: The European Union said it is ready to accommodate more Indian IT professionals and denounced any form of protectionism in global trade, amid anxiety in India over the Trump administration’s possible clampdown on H-1B visa.
Pushing for deeper trade ties with India, a delegation of European Parliament’s committee on foreign affairs which is in India, also expressed “regret” over failure by both sides to resume dialogue to firm EU-India trade and investment pact.
Criticising the new US government’s protectionist rhetoric, head of the delegation David McAllister said, “Europe is open for people with high demand. Indian people are highly skilled. Our IT sector would not have been successful if we did not have skilled professionals from India.”
London, Feb, 22: Britain’s Supreme Court says the government is entitled to set a minimum-income threshold for people wanting to bring foreign spouses to the country, a measure introduced to ensure immigrants won’t draw on public welfare funds. But the court says the way the rules have been implemented is unlawful.
Since 2012, Britons who want to bring spouses from outside the European Union (EU) to the UK must earn, at least, £18,600 a year.
Many who were rejected under the rules took the government to court arguing the law breached their right to a family life.
A high court judge in London ruled in July 2013 that the introduction of the minimum income criteria, which increases if there are children, was an unjustified interference with human rights.
In February last year, a panel of seven justices headed by Supreme Court deputy president Lady Hale heard submissions that the measures amounted to an “unlawful interference with core human rights”, and that the minimum income level had been set “unreasonably high”, according to The Telegraph.
The justices heard challenges from British citizens, Abdul Majid and Shabana Jawed, who cannot meet the criteria to bring their non-EEA spouses into the UK, and from MM, a refugee from the Lebanon who is resident in the UK and in a similar position, and his nephew AF.
The judges ruled on Wednesday that the income requirement was lawful but had been implemented in a “defective” way.