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thomas davison

UK
'BACK DOOR' WILL LET IN 20,000 MIGRANTS
More immigrants could slip through the net

More immigrants could slip through the net

Sunday January 27,2013
By Ted Jeory

A TRADE deal between the EU and India, worth billions of pounds, could allow 20,000 workers into Britain by the back door, a senior MP said yesterday

Chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee Keith Vaz expressed serious concerns about the deal because of �strings-attached� demands by Indian IT giants.

Negotiations over the EU-India Free Trade Agreement will recommence when a top- level team from Brussels flies to Delhi this week.

India wants to send skilled technology graduates to work in Europe, mostly in Britain, in return for granting the City of London �access to huge banking and insurance markets.

However, documents seen by the Sunday Express reveal Britain has been willing to �accept 20,000 workers on intra-company transfer visas � which would bypass the Coalition�s �immigration cap.

Brussels� chief negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero said talks over the deal had now reached a �critical phase�. He will be flying to Delhi this week for further negotiations. David Cameron is due to fly there in early February.

The Prime Minister made no mention of the Indian deal at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last Thursday when he spoke of a �possible EU-US free trade deal.

Number 10 declined to comment when approached by the Sunday Express last week.

Mr Vaz said Downing Street needed to be more candid about the influx of migrants and the possibility that British graduates might be undercut and squeezed out of jobs.

He said: �My concern is that although the Government strongly believes in reducing the number of people who come into this country, this EU-India Free Trade Agreement comes with strings.

�And the strings are that thousands of visas will be given to Indian companies to enable them to come and work in the EU, including the UK, under the intra-company transfer arrangements.

�So it comes at a cost, and that will be the effect on real immigration. They say they want to bring down immigrant numbers into the tens of thousands, but that�s not going to be achievable if you count all these intra-company transfer visas.�

His warning came days after an update on the talks by Mr Bercero in Brussels last week.

He said EU states had to be realistic about what could be achieved by the negotiations, which began in 2007 under the former Trade Commissioner Lord Mandelson. Mr Bercero said: �We have now reached a point where the next few weeks are going to be critical.�

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Number 10 declined to comment when approached by the Sunday Express last week
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India is still a �developing country, he added, �and we have to be clear that we can�t conclude this deal at the same level of ambition we had with Korea or Singapore. There has to be a level of asymmetry about this agreement.�

Western retail giants such as Tesco and Carrefour also want more market access in India but their moves sparked waves of violent protests in September.

Mr Bercero said other hurdles included Indian protests about EU dairy and poultry �exports because they were heavily subsidised by the Common Agricultural Policy.

Expert trade researcher Linda Kaucher, who attended the update, said: �This is essentially a UK deal.

�The UK Government is set to take the bulk of cheap labour entry from India yet has kept this from British workers.�

This coupled with the Croatians coming in july and then the millions coming next year from Romania and Bulgaria means the government has lost the plot and YOU HAVE NO SAY AT ALL IN WHATS HAPPENING TO YOUR COUNTRY. YOU VOTED FOR IT NOW GET ON WITH IT.