‘List’ of foreigners gets short shrift
ASOUTHPORT businessman has hit back at government plans to force British companies to publish the number of foreign workers they employ.
The policy announced by Home Secretary Amber Rudd at the Conservative Party conference last week was designed as part of plans to reduce net migration.
Under the policy, businesses would have to publish the nationalities of all their employees.
The announcement was met with a furious backlash from business owners and mulitple MPs, including other Tories, who rounded on the plan as divisive. Steve Hilton, who worked as an advisor to former Prime Minister David Cameron, described it as ‘‘foreign working shaming’.’
Marcel Zacahariah, who owns two businesses in Southport, has added his voice to those opposing the plan.
He was born in Egypt and moved to Southport in 1958, and described it as discriminatory.
He said: “My gut reaction is that it is discriminatory because people have worked for us for a long time and I don’t see why foreign workers should be named.
“It is wrong. People have come to this country to work and should be judged on their output, not where they come from.
“When you start naming people, it’s the first step to discrimination.”
Mr Zacahariah owns the Royal Arcade, and Argyle Building Company, employing 15 people, most of whom are British.
He said that when he first moved from Egypt, he was made to feel welcome in his new home, but that this feeling could be lost because of these new plans.
He said: “British people, as well as foreign people, shouldn’t be criticised for having a job. If they have a bona fide, then why should anyone be singled out.
“It’s like we’re saying they must be second class citizens some- how.”
Following the fallout, the plans have been pulled back by education secretary Justine Greening, who said that companies will not have to publish the data, but that it will instead be used to identify skill shortages in different areas of the country.
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