Immigration news

The New Zealand Department of Labour has announced it will be hunting for skilled workers willing to move to New Zealand. The recruitment campaign will take place at CeBIT, the world's largest information and communications technology (ICT) trade fair, which takes place in Hanover in mid-March. The New Zealand pavilion will showcase innovative local technologies, as well as promoting the New Zealand lifestyle and providing practical migration information and employer contacts.

The much awaited debate in the US Senate on immigration reform has begun. The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold executive business meetings to consider the immigration reform bill proposed by Chairman Arlen Specter (Republican, Pennsylvania).

The debate has two groups of Republicans in an election-year fight against each other. One side, social conservatives, wants the government to take a harder line against illegal immigrants and employers who want those immigrants for jobs.

Nationals of the African nation of Malawi need visas to visit Britain as of March 1, 2006, the UK government said.Home Office minister Tony McNulty said visas are being introduced because of a growing number of asylum seekers from Malawi and other Africans using Malawi passports."Visas are an important tool in effective border control and our visa policy is kept under constant review to ensure that requirements remain proportionate and are responsive to changing situations," McNulty said.

New Zealand had a seasonally adjusted gain of 550 long-term and permanent migrants in January, Statistics New Zealand said on March 1.

The net migration gain compared with a gain of 1180 in December.

On an actual, unadjusted basis, arrivals exceeded departures by 1700, unchanged from a year earlier, the government agency said. There were 300 fewer permanent departures as well as 300 fewer permanent arrivals than in January 2005.

After more than 6 years the United Kingdom visa regime for Croatia will be lifted on 22 March 2006, the embassy in Zagreb announced on March 1.According to the decision, tourist, business and family visits for up to six months will no longer require a visa. Transit visas are abolished also and visas are not required for Croats who want to study for up to six months in the United Kingdom. Croats who intend to stay in the United Kingdom for a period of more than six months a visa will be required.

The free movement of workers within the European Union supports the development of Europe, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said after meeting with his Czech counterpart Jiri Paroubek (senior governing Social Democrats, CSSD) in Prague this week.

The Finnish government has decided that Finland will lift the restrictions on new EU-member states to its labour market as of this May.