Immigration loophole blasted by APSCo

According to APSCo, the transfers represent a loophole in the 2008 points-based immigration rules that allow UK companies to bring in non-European workers from their satellite offices without having to satisfy the points-based system.
 
While the association says it is not campaigning against a handful of staff moving from non-EU offices to the UK, it argues a small number of companies are abusing the loophole by moving thousands into this country without satisfying any points criteria.
 
"Companies normally have to show that the person they import has skills they absolutely need," said Ann Swain, CEO of APSCo. "What's happening, is that predominantly Indian-based companies - that grew by having work offshored to them - are setting up in Britain and transferring all these people back here in their thousands."
 
Through a Freedom of Information request APSCo says it has discovered 29,240 non-European IT workers alone entered the UK on transfer from global offices -three times the number that arrived during the dotcom boom.
 
Swain says many have entered by abusing the system in the way she describes. She says: "We already have unemployed IT professionals in the UK who could easily fulfil these companies' needs. It's crazy, it's a joke. There's no need to bring these people over, except for profit."
 
APSCo singles out Mahindra-British Telecom as one of the worst offenders. It appears on a list Amicus compiled of the companies responsible for 90% of all intra-company transfers in the IT sector. APSCo claims BT is taking hundreds of workers from the Indian-based telecoms services firm now called Tech Mahindra, with whom it signed a five-year outsourcing deal in 2008. Tech Mahindra was formerly Mahindra-BT, a joint venture between BT and automobile company Mahindra & Mahindra. Other companies on the Amicus list include Satyam Computer Services, Accenture and Infosys.
 
APSCo has written to the Migration Advisory Committee insisting legislation is drawn up to force employers to advertise vacancies they have in the UK before they transfer any employees into Britain from their foreign offices.

But, according to a spokesman from the UK Border Agency, employees brought into the UK from non-European subsidiaries of UK companies still have to abide by the points rules: "The points-based system still applies to company transfers," said the spokesman. "There is no way the rules are bypassed," he said.
 
Swain said: "I don't believe this. We've been trying to raise this issue for many years now, but there doesn't seem to be an appetite by government to investigate it." She added: "The purpose of the points-based immigration system is to ensure UK plc gets senior-level workers with unique company knowledge and specific expertise whom it is impossible to recruit locally. Home Office figures, however, show that most intra-company transfers in the IT sector are junior to mid-level workers who have skills that are in plentiful supply within the EU."