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Immigration controls for overseas IT workers still open to abuse
Posted May 17, 2011
The Public Accounts Committee has delivered its report into the current Points Based System of immigration.
Although it recognised that the current system is an improvement on the previous one, the Committee says that the Intra-Company Transfer route is still being abused despite the implementation of a minimum salary threshold for IT workers.
According to the report's recommendations, 42,000 IT workers have entered the UK from when the Points Based System began to September 2010, at a time when the jobs market has been depressed for homegrown IT professionals.
The ICT route allows multinational companies from outside the European Economic Area to send workers to subsidiaries in the UK, with less stringent checks made than other immigration routes. Two thirds of ICT workers are in IT.
Are salary and allowance thresholds open to abuse?
There is no cap on the maximum number of individuals who can enter the UK using the ICT rules, although since April 2011 workers must be paid at least £24,000 per year to stay in the UK for one year. Workers earning over £40,000 have the right to stay for five years.
On this point, the Committee raised concerns over how salary levels can be verified, especially as 40% of these salaries can be paid in the form of allowances. The only way of checking that stated salary levels are correct is via inspection visits. It is much harder for inspectors to validate the size of allowances paid.
The Home Office has asked the Migration Advisory Committee to review the ICT route on a yearly basis, and has pledged to take further action if UK workers are displaced despite these more recent safeguards being put in place.
Insufficient information on migrants due to poor IT
Ironically, the report reveals that the UK Border Agency does not have sufficient management information on migrant applications, mainly because it does not have the 'necessary IT in place'.
The Agency decided against upgrading its IT capabilities to manage migrant applications in order to meet the deadlines for the implementation of the Points Based System itself!
You can read the full report, and conclusions here.
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