UK pushes for 'toughest border'

7 May 2008, 0215 hrs IST

LONDON: Britain tightened the rules to regulate entry of skilled non-European workers on Tuesday in the second phase of the biggest overhaul of immigration policy for a generation.

The strict new criteria announced on Tuesday require British employers to prove they cannot fill skilled posts with resident or European workers. Non-European skilled workers will need to have a firm job offer in hand even before they apply for visas. Skilled non-Europeans would also need to speak fluent English and earn £24,000 in their home country in order to have any chance of entering Britain legally to work.

The new rules were announced by immigration minister Liam Byrne as a "system (that) means British jobseekers get the first crack of the whip and that only the skilled migrants we actually need will be able to come". Tuesday’s announcement comes barely eight weeks after Britain formally inaugurated an Australian-style points-based system in the hope it would have "one of the toughest borders in the world" by year-end.

On February 29, rules governing the controversial, existing highly-skilled migrants programme were overhauled and a new licensing system put in place for employers wanting to recruit from overseas locations outside Europe.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/UK_immigration_rules_become_stricter/articleshow/3016828.cms

Wonder if there is any other country where this could be emulated.