Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is pushing through a change to the visa
system that will allow the Government to claim that there are nearly 20,000
fewer immigrants in the UK.
In a move that risks being described as an attempt to massage immigration
statistics, Home Office officials are considering plans to shorten visas by
as little as one day to avoid having to describe them as migrants.
Currently, foreign workers brought to Britain by companies to plug skills gaps
on short-term visas lasting 12 months count towards the annual net
immigration total.
The Home Office will now reduce the maximum stay for Intra-Company Transfer
(ICT) short-term visas to under 12 months – meaning they will no longer
count towards the annual net migration total, according
to The Financial Times.
It comes as the Government continues to face pressure over David Cameron and
Mrs May’s pledge to reduce net migration to the “tens of thousands” by 2015.
In February, figures showed that net migration had increased by a third to
212,000 in the last year.
The surge was partly driven by a huge increase in the number of Romanian and
Bulgarian citizens coming to Britain, which jumped 166 per cent from 9,000
to 24,000 year-on-year.
The Office for National Statistics said estimates for the 12 months to the end
of September revealed a net flow of 212,000 migrants to Britain, compared
with 154,000 the previous year.
According to the Home Office, it wants to impose new curbs on the ICT visas
over fears that they are being abused by companies.
Neil Carberry, director for employment and skills at the CBI, told The
Financial Times: “We are in a pretty dangerous place if we are redesigning
the tiers of the immigration system in order to meet a political target.
“This would once again undermine the image of the UK as a place where we
welcome highly skilled people.”
In recent weeks Mr Cameron has insisted that the Government will still meet
the net migration target ahead of next year’s general election.
Labour accused Mrs May of trying to "fix" the net migration figures.
David Hanson, the shadow immigration minister, said: "This is a desperate
attempt to fiddle figures from an increasingly desperate Home Secretary.
"David Cameron promised his Government would cut net migration to the tens
of thousands and he has failed. Now Theresa May wants to fix the figures
brazenly, trying to take the British public for fools. If the Home Secretary
thinks cheating the public is the way forward, it's this Government that's
the fool."