United Kingdom Secretary Sajid Javid swore to review the country’s immigration system to overcome monthly immigration cap averting Indian doctors from being brought in to handle shortfall in the state-funded National Health Service (NHS).
“I see a problem with that and it is something I am taking a fresh look at. I hope to think about this more carefully and see what can be done,” Javid told in reference to the Tier 2 visa cap that has hit doctors and other highly-skilled professionals from outside the European Union.
His remarks is an outcome to “Scrap the Cap” campaign online petition with 1,600 signatures launched by the ‘British Medical Journal’ and backed by the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), the UK’s leading doctor’s association is calling for a common sense approach to the UK’s immigration system.
The cap Tier-2 visa category permit companies to bring professionals from outside the EU which is set at 20,700 per year with a monthly limit around 1,600. Till last year of December, the limit had been exceeded only once in six years merely since then that cap has been hit almost every month.
Between December 2017 and March 2018, according to latest figures the UK Home Office spurned over 1,500 visa applications from professionals like doctors.
A numerous ruling conservative party’s Members of parliament have been lobbying the government for a review of cap which Javid now will be looking into.
Javid as well indicated possible softening of immigration policy of the UK government in other areas, distancing himself from the phrases like ‘hostile environment’ and adopting ‘complaint environment’ that makes distinction clear between legal and illegal migrants.
By Sowmya Sangam
