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Leaked proposals to cap EU migrant numbers illegal, says Clegg (17 December 2013)

Date: 17/12/2013
Duncan Lewis, Immigration Solicitors, Leaked proposals to cap EU migrant numbers illegal, says Clegg

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said that a Home Office cap on EU migration numbers would be illegal – and a disaster for the UK economy.

Mr Clegg was responding to a leaked Home Office document which draws up plans to limit the number of migrants allowed to settle and work in the UK.

The Home Office proposals include a limit of 75,000 new EU migrants allowed to live and work in the UK annually, which Mr Clegg called “illegal and unworkable”. In the year 2012-2013, a total of 183,000 people moved from EU member states to the UK.

The proposals would allow highly skilled workers from countries like Germany or the Netherlands to live and work in the UK; while lesser skilled workers from EU member states would have to have a job offer in an industry with a high vacancy rate before they moved to the UK.

The UK has already imposed tighter conditions on claiming benefits for new migrants to the UK, including making newcomers wait for three months before claiming – and only allowing them to claim benefits for six months unless they have a genuine prospect of being offered a job in the UK.

Conservative Home Secretary Theresa May has said there may be plans for reforming migration in the future, but in an interview with BBC Radio 4 she said the government was not planning “to introduce such a cap now” – although there was concern over the “abuse of free movement” in the EU, she added.

Speaking to the Today programme, the Home Secretary said she had discussed the issue of EU migration with other EU interior ministers:

“There is a growing concern not just here in the UK but elsewhere too about the abuse of free movement – about the way in which people can move freely across Europe, sometimes for access to benefits.”

There have been calls from some Tory MPs to extend border restrictions on migrants from Bulgaria and Romania, due to be lifted after 31 December.

However, the Tory rebel Amendment to the Immigration Bill will not now be debated, as the Bill is not due to return to the House of Commons until the New Year.

Some critics of the UK’s immigration policy have accused the government of sidelining the Amendment to avoid political fallout with the EU over border restrictions.

However, many Bulgarians and Romanians already work in the UK, filling vacancies in the NHS and retail or hospitality sectors. Many also take low-paid seasonal jobs in agriculture or packing. Recent research also shows that migrants are less likely to claim benefits than UK nationals – and are more likely to be young, well educated and highly skilled.

Theresa May confirmed, however, that both she and Prime Minister David Cameron would like further changes to rules about free movement in the EU, which would limit the number of new migrants from EU member states.

Mr Clegg said, however:

“If we pulled up the drawbridge now and said to German lawyers or Finnish engineers or Dutch accountants that they can't come [to the UK] to work, it would be a disaster for our economy.

“My advice to the Home Office is to spend less time leaking policies that are illegal and undeliverable – and spend more time delivering on the policies that we have agreed as a coalition government; notably the reinstatement of exit checks.”

Duncan Lewis Immigration Lawyers

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of immigration lawyers and can advise on a wide range of issues relating to immigration or asylum in the UK, including:

• Access to benefits for migrants to the UK
• UK citizenship
• Right to work in the UK
• Illegal entry to the UK
• Marriage in the UK
• Detention
• Student Visas.

Duncan Lewis is also one of the UK’s leading Legal Aid firms of solicitors.

Contact Duncan Lewis immigration lawyers on 020 7923 4020 for expert legal advice on immigration and asylum.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25398612


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