Boris welcomes top scientists in migration shake-up after Brexit
TOP scientists are to be offered fast-track visas for Britain, as ministers finalise plans to slash low- skilled migration from the European Union.
Boris Johnson will today unveil plans for a ‘Global Talent’ visa scheme for leading scientists and mathematicians in a bid to show that the UK remains open to the ‘brightest and best’.
The Prime Minister will say that ‘as we leave the EU I want to send a message that the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world’.
The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is due to report tomorrow on proposals for a points-based system, which ministers have vowed will cut overall numbers coming to the UK.
Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday warned business that it could no longer rely on cheap migrant labour to fill lowskilled jobs. At present, free movement rules mean EU citizens have an automatic right to live and work in the UK.
Those from outside the EU already face a form of points-based system designed to limit numbers. And the Home Office forecasts that simply applying the rules currently faced by non-EU citizens to those coming from Europe would slash numbers by 80-90 per cent.
This could see the number of migrants arriving from the EU fall from almost 200,000 last year to as little as 20,000.
‘It is a stark illustration of how much harder it is to get in from other parts of the world, and shows that a lot of the immigration from the EU is low-skilled,’ one source said.
Officials stressed that ministers were planning to introduce a completely new points-based system. A special visa will be available for workers in the NHS and temporary fruit pickers.
The MAC is expected to propose that
‘Special visa for NHS workers’
migrants are awarded points based on a range of criteria, including salary, skills, age and ability to speak English.
Only those with enough points will be granted a work visa. The existing £30,000 salary threshold is set to be scrapped, with ministers deciding it is too crude a measure. However, the decision to scrap the threshold was criticised by a migration think-tank last night.
Migration Watch warned that the new immigration system could risk a return to the ‘open door’ days of Tony Blair.
More than three million people are thought to have come to Britain after 1998, when Mr Blair’s government eased entry requirements for migrants from outside Europe and allowed Eastern European countries free access to jobs in Britain as they joined the EU.
The think-tank said the £30,000 salary cap was important to stop employers from hiring cheap labour from abroad rather than paying better wages and improving conditions for UK workers. It added that the points-based system advocated by Mr Johnson to allow in betterqualified workers was flawed and should be backed with a limit on numbers.