UK Immigration News

The UK's proposed changes to its immigration rules could end the traditional entry and settlement rights of Commonwealth citizens with British relatives, a newspaper said.

The Times daily said that Britain's new points-based immigration system could end a scheme whereby Commonwealth citizens with a British grandparent are allowed to enter and settle in Britain.

People from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and Zimbabwe are the most likely to be affected.

Former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies says that migrant workers are paid less than local workers in Wales, and that workers from the new EU member states are forced to endure "Dickensian" labor conditions.

"The EU has to get its act together to iron out the huge regional inequalities driving workers to migrate in the first place and offer them decent protection if they do. The UK has to come to terms with the social consequences of a net annual inflow of some 250,000 working age migrants," he said.

Poor countries across Africa, Central America and the Caribbean are losing sometimes staggering numbers of their college-educated workers to wealthy, industrialized democracies, according to a World Bank study made public this week.

Its conclusions are based on a far-reaching survey of census and other data from the 30 countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which counts most of the world's richest nations among its members.

Maltese Prime Minister Dr Lawrence Gonzi and British Home Secretary Charles Clarke on Monday agreed on the need for closer cooperation between Malta and Britain and to tackle the issue of illegal immigration in the European Union . During the meeting that was held in London, the British Home Secretary offered practical assistance to help Malta tackle the issue, particularly with regards those illegal immigrants coming by sea from North Africa.

Nearly a year and a half after the expansion of the European Union, waves of East Europeans have washed into Britain. The New York Times reports.

They work as bus drivers, farmhands and dentists, as waitresses, builders and saleswomen; they are transforming parts of London into Slavic and Baltic enclaves where pickles and Polish beer are stacked in delicatessens and Polish can be heard on the streets almost as often as English.

Immigration to the UK hit a record high in 2004, new statistics have revealed.

A total of 494,100 non-Britons migrated to the UK, an increase of 21% on the 2003 figure of 406,800.

As reported earlier on workpermit.com, some 52,600 of those arriving in 2004 were from the 10 countries who joined the EU on May 1 last year, the Office for National Statistics figures showed.