UK PM pledges visa abuse crackdown, stem immigration

LONDON - British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that he is committed to more than halving immigration and to slash immigration by cracking down on rampant abuse of the country’s visa system.

According to the Daily Mail, Cameron’s announcement came as official figures showed that thousands of non-EU workers are being allowed in to fill posts for which large numbers of jobless Britons have the same skills.

The research also found that workers granted visas for so called ‘highly-skilled’ posts end up employed in fast-food outlets, warehouses and doing jobs such as mixing concrete.

Officials have cast huge doubt on claims by businesses that they will be unable to cope if the Government places a strict cap on economic migration.

Of the permits made available under the current interim cap, which came into force this summer, only 39 per cent have been assigned.

Just three of the ten businesses that traditionally bring in the largest number of non-EU workers have used more than 50 per cent of the permits available to them.

Meanwhile, the British Government is expected to announce tomorrow that about 40,000 non-EU migrants will be given work permits next year, down from about 50,000 currently.

The so-called highly skilled workers will have to be coming to a job paying at least 40,000-pounds a year.

Figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show that there are more than 30,000 British care assistants and home carers out of work - yet almost 1,700 were brought into the UK in the year to March 2010.

Although there were more than 4,500 software professionals claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, more than 1,000 were recruited from abroad. (ANI)