BORIS Johnson’s points-based immigration policy risks opening up Britain to over 600 million people, an alarming report has found.
MigrationWatch UK said the lack of a cap on numbers combined with a salary cap of £25,000 – less than the UK average wage – will make it easier for the vast majority of citizens from across the world to come to Britain.
Visa rules will actually be weaker than the current immigration system for residents of eight in ten countries around the world.
Only citizens in the 27 EU countries will find it significantly harder to come here, the campaign said.
This means that an estimated 590 million non-EU nationals will qualify to come to the UK under the new points-based immigration system coming into effect from January next year, according to MigrationWatch UK, whose migration estimates have proven highly accurate since 2001.
In addition, the likely pool of EU nationals eligible to qualify for visas will be 77 million, meaning employers will be able to draw on a worldwide pool of more than 667 million people, the campaign group warns.
It said it was “completely unacceptable” for ministers to plough ahead without a limit on the number of migrants can be recruited by employers given an estimated four million Brits are expected to be made jobless due to the coronavirus crisis.
More than 7 million UK jobs will be subject to new or increased global recruitment, according to MigrationWatch research.
It urged ministers to use the summer Parliamentary break to “think again” and ensure the new immigration system incentivises UK companies to boost pay and conditions for the domestic workforce.
MigrationWatch boss Alp Mehmet warned: “This scheme was drawn up long before the Covid crisis.
“Now, with unemployment heading for several million, we cannot simply blunder on with unlimited immigration from all over the world. Immigration could easily spin out of control as it did under Labour.
“The only way to avoid a crisis is to put a cap on the numbers and then adjust as necessary.
“What is the point of taking back control over immigration only to hand it over to business?”
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