Worried about the proposed visa fee by the UK and other limitations on overseas skilled employees, largely targeted at IT industry of India, the government has decided for taking up the issue at India-EU Free Trade Agreement, when dialogue begins formally.
According to a government official, they had already pointed out to EU that trouble-free movement of skilled worker to its member states that also includes the UK would be on the top of their agenda when the dialogue starts formally. He said that one cannot talk about the free trade while latest limitations are being imposed on the movement of worker.
The Central Government also proposes to take up the matter with the UK soon, as the Commerce Ministry is presently engaged in examining the content of Committee on Migration Advisory (MAC) of the UK’s report.
The government official also said that the skilled labour pool of India is that the whole world gets benefited from and in a world where we are spreading free movement of goods and services, but putting limitations on the free movement of professionals is unnecessary.
According to the report from MAC, it had stated that the professionals from India accounts for large number of Tier 2 visas in the year that ended in September 2015. Around 90% of Tier 2 visas were granted to Indian employees goes to those working in IT firms.
The proposed step has been criticized by representatives of many industry bodies in the UK like the Directors Institute and the British Industry Confederation and also warned that slashing down the skilled migration would hurt the economy of the UK.
