Britain to cut low-skilled worker visa schemes
Afp, London
Britain will cut two work permit programmes for low-skilled workers from outside Europe within a year, effectively eliminating about 18,000 visas, The Independent reported on Friday. The two schemes to be cut are the agricultural workers' visa scheme, which admits about 16,000 people every year, and a separate scheme for other economic sectors, which allows about 1,800 people into Britain each year, the newspaper reported, citing Liam Byrne, the government immigration minister. Employers will instead be encouraged to seek out potential employees first from Britain, and then from the 25-member European Union, within which migrant workers can move to Britain with no restrictions. "It makes sense anyway, if they have the skills to do them, to give jobs to people who already have the right to come here freely," Byrne was quoted as saying in the newspaper. "So in line with this position we will be phasing out schemes for low-skilled migration from outside the EU."
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