UK ‘won’t be able to limit’ EU migrants after no-deal Brexit
THE Government will not be able to bring in “meaningful restrictions” on the arrival of new EU migrants after a no-deal Brexit, immigration experts have warned.
Employers would be unable to distinguish new arrivals from EU citizens already living in the UK until the settlement scheme — which grants them permission to live and work in the country after Brexit — is concluded at the end of 2020, the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said.
There would be no way of telling people who previously arrived in the UK — or other EU citizens who have not registered for settled status — apart from those arriving after November 1, the report said.
It comes as figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) show a net gain of 4,100 people coming to live here in 2018 — the fifth year in a row in which the migrant population here has grown.
Migration Observatory director Madeleine Sumption said that even if the Government knew what it wanted a post-Brexit immigration system to look like, “it wouldn’t be possible to implement it immediately after a no-deal Brexit”.
“That’s because any new restrictions on EU migration can’t be enforced unless UK employers know which EU citizens have been here for years and which ones arrived post-Brexit and have to comply with the new immigration regime,” she said.
“Realistically, the only way to do this is to implement the EU settlement scheme so that EU citizens have had enough time to apply for status before restrictions are imposed.”
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said a “managed Brexit with a transition strategy” was urgently needed to protect the rights of EU citizens already living and working in the UK, to avoid a “potential disaster for businesses”.
It said Home Secretary Priti Patel’s announcement that freedom of movement would end the day after Brexit in a no-deal “added to growing unease among businesses and EU employees about the potential impact on jobs and society”.
Tom Hadley, REC’s policy and campaigns director, said: “The Government must stop posturing and urgently develop a transition plan that ensures EU citizens currently working here feel welcomed.”