Latest news with #SkilledWorker
Asahi Shimbun
an hour ago
- Asahi Shimbun
Vietnamese cuisine chef loses visa for working in burger shop
Pho chefs can be granted a Skilled Worker visa without a Japanese language requirement if they are deemed to have specialized expertise in ethnic cuisine. (Asahi Shimbun file photo) A change in venue caused a Vietnamese chef to lose his residency status in Japan, a case legal experts say highlights systemic gaps in the country's foreign labor system. Although a legal dispute over the matter has been settled, the chef, who was assigned to a hamburger shop instead of a pho restaurant, was forced to leave Japan and cannot return. According to court records, the 40-year-old man had previously come to Japan as a technical intern 20 years ago. In 2018, wanting to work in Japan again, he consulted an acquaintance who runs a staffing agency in Vietnam. Since returning to Japan as a technical intern was not possible, he was advised to apply for a Skilled Worker visa as a chef. This category allows foreigners with specific expertise in ethnic cuisine to work in Japan. The man had over 10 years of experience helping at his family's Vietnamese restaurant. He demonstrated his cooking skills by preparing the noodle soup during a meeting in Vietnam with the operator of a restaurant in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture. After passing this informal test, he signed a job contract and paid 1 million yen ($6,800) in fees to the intermediary. He obtained his chef visa and arrived in Japan in October 2020. However, the pho restaurant where he was assigned to work at had closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, he was reassigned to a related hamburger shop, which did not serve Vietnamese food and thus did not meet the conditions of his chef visa. For two years, the man worked at the burger shop, unaware that he was violating his visa conditions. One day, during a routine inspection, immigration authorities discovered the breach and revoked his residency status. With the support of a legal group advocating for foreigners, the man filed a damages lawsuit at the Osaka District Court against both the Japanese staffing agency and the restaurant operator. The staffing agency admitted it knew the reassignment violated visa conditions but argued that the man had insisted on working as soon as possible. The restaurant operator denied any wrongdoing, claiming it had relied on an administrative scrivener for visa compliance. In December last year, both companies agreed to a court-mediated settlement, paying a total of 2.5 million yen to the man. However, the visa was not reissued, and he remains unable to return to Japan. LACK OF OVERSIGHT Because the Skilled Worker visa allows foreign chefs to work in Japan without language tests or institutional oversight, it creates opportunities for misuse, legal experts said. 'This kind of case is not rare,' said attorney Hisanori Shikata, who represented the Vietnamese man. Administrative scrivener Takeru Okamoto, an expert in immigration law, warns that many employers seeking to hire foreign cooks do not fully understand visa categories. 'Even if the employer is unaware, assigning work outside visa conditions can lead to criminal charges for promoting illegal employment,' he said. Yoshihisa Saito, an associate professor of Asian labor law at Kobe University, emphasized the need to reform the category to better protect workers. As of June last year, 45,000 foreign nationals were working under the Skilled Worker visa category. Unlike the newer Specified Skilled Worker visa introduced in 2019, the Skilled Worker visa lacks supervision from specialized agencies. 'Some intermediaries are acting in bad faith,' Saito said. 'Employers must understand visa rules, and legal reforms are needed, including Japanese language requirements.'
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Business Standard
3 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Migrants on UK Skilled Worker visa face debt, fake agents, exploitation
A key British work visa route used by thousands of Indian and other foreign professionals leaves migrants vulnerable to abuse by their sponsors, a parliamentary panel has warned. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which reviews government spending, raised concerns on July 5 over the structure of the Skilled Worker visa and the Home Office's failure to prevent exploitation. How the Skilled Worker visa works The Skilled Worker visa allows people from outside the UK and Switzerland to live and work in the UK for an approved sponsoring employer. It replaced the earlier Tier 2 (General) work visa and is a major part of the country's post-Brexit immigration system. Applicants must have a job offer from a UK employer with a sponsor licence, and their right to remain in the country is tied to that employer. This dependency, according to the PAC, increases the risk of exploitation. Parliament flags abuse, debt bondage and fake agents 'There is evidence that applicants have been charged extortionate fees for Skilled Worker visas in their home countries, before they come to the United Kingdom,' the PAC report notes. It adds that workers have been subjected to debt bondage, long working hours and poor conditions. These issues have been particularly severe in the social care sector, which was opened to foreign recruitment in 2022 to address shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Government moved swiftly to open up the visa system to help the social care system cope during the pandemic… Our report finds that this speed came at a painfully high cost – to the safety of workers from the depredations of labour market abuses, and the integrity of the system from people not following the rules,' said Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, PAC chair and Conservative MP. He added that the Home Office still lacks basic data, including how many visa holders have been identified as victims of modern slavery or have overstayed their visas. PAC criticised the Home Office for not doing enough to stop fraudulent recruitment practices in migrants' home countries. Many applicants have fallen prey to bogus agents promising jobs in the UK and charging illegal fees. Adis Sehic, policy manager at the Work Rights Centre, said the findings confirmed concerns of widespread abuse involving at least 39,000 migrant care workers, including many Indians. 'This report is yet more damning evidence that the principle of sponsorship, which ties migrant workers in the UK to their employer, is inherently unsafe for workers and, in our view, breaches their human rights,' said Sehic. 'Structural reform of the sponsorship system must urgently be undertaken if this government is to meaningfully uphold its commitments relating to employment and human rights.' Drop in Indian work visas amid rule changes According to UK Home Office data, Indian nationals accounted for 81,463 of the 369,419 work-related visas granted by the UK in 2024 — the highest of any nationality at 22%. However, this marks a sharp 50% drop from 162,655 visas issued to Indians in 2023. The number of main applicants fell by 53% and dependents by 48%, likely reflecting new restrictions introduced in early 2024. These included: • Raising the minimum salary threshold for Skilled Worker visas to £38,700 • Banning social care workers from bringing dependents • Reducing the number of jobs eligible for lower salary sponsorship • Increasing the income requirement for spouse or partner visas from £18,600 to £29,000 Within the Indian cohort: • 34,954 were main applicants (43%) • 46,509 were dependents (57%) • 30,301 held Health and Care Worker visas (37%) • 27,922 were on Skilled Worker visas (34%) Other categories included senior or specialist business workers (6,219), creative workers (1,860), international sportspeople (241), religious workers (148), seasonal workers (101), and ministers of religion (70). The Home Office has said it will formally respond to the PAC's recommendations in due course. A spokesperson said, 'We have rolled up our sleeves to fix the broken immigration system, suspending the highest total of skilled worker sponsor licences since records began in 2012, raising the Skilled Worker threshold back to degree level and ending overseas recruitment to the care sector.' The government also recently released its Immigration White Paper, proposing further changes to the Skilled Worker route and international recruitment practices.
Spectator
6 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
How the Home Office created the Boriswave
The Home Office opened Britain's doors to record numbers of migrants without properly assessing the risks or consequences, according to a damning new report from parliament's Public Accounts Committee. The report, released overnight, finds that the department 'made changes to the Skilled Worker Visa route without a full assessment of the risks or potential impacts, including the risks of non-compliance with visa rules and exploitation of migrant workers.' In other words, the Tories turned on the immigration tap without asking what would happen when these workers' visas expired – or what they would do while they were here. The result: the so-called 'Boriswave'. The reason: it 'was busy with other priorities, including the new Ukraine schemes'. The Skilled Worker route was rapidly expanded in response to labour shortages, particularly in social care, from 2022 onwards. But the Home Office failed to consult other departments on how this sudden influx – nearly 1.2 million people over four years – would affect their sectors or public services. The result was chaos: three times more migrants came than officials had anticipated, and the Home Office still hasn't assessed whether the scheme is achieving its objectives. The committee's first observation is damning: that the Home Office lacked a 'full understanding of the potential consequences of changes for different sectors of the labour market'. In plainer English: it didn't think about how a flood of new working-age migrants (and their dependents) might affect salaries, services or housing. Worse still, officials were blindsided by the scale of the take-up. Government forecasts expected 360,000 Skilled Worker Visa holders in the three years to April 2024; the actual number was 931,000. And while the report acknowledges that the visa route helped employers to fill roles in struggling sectors, it notes that 80 per cent more migrants are staying permanently than in 2021. One particularly shocking statistic: in 2022, just 53 Skilled Worker Visa holders applied for asylum when their visa ended. Last year that number had skyrocketed to 5,300. This raises questions about whether the visa route is being used appropriately – or whether some migrants are arriving under false pretences, only to remain by exploiting other parts of the system. Perhaps the most troubling finding is the evidence of worker exploitation. The care sector – which saw a sharp increase in foreign recruits – is singled out as especially vulnerable. The visa route was opened in haste, and the Home Office 'failed to understand the risks' of non-compliance. While officials quickly spotted signs of abuse, they were painfully slow to act. The report warns that the wider government response to tackling exploitation has been 'insufficient' and that the Home Office's own enforcement has been 'slow and ineffective'. It has failed to clamp down on dodgy recruitment agents and has largely taken sponsoring employers at their word when it comes to compliance. Worse, it appears the department has little idea whether visa holders are actually obeying the rules. Only 1 per cent of sponsors were referred for enhanced compliance checks last year. The government, the report states bluntly, 'does not understand the extent to which people are complying with the terms of their visa and leaving the United Kingdom when they should'. Britain's economy will always require some level of migration to plug workforce gaps – even the most hardline anti-immigration politicians accept that. But the Public Accounts Committee has laid bare a system that was rushed, uncoordinated and badly policed. Opening the doors without a plan for enforcement, oversight or long-term integration wasn't just careless – it was reckless. What's more troubling is the pretence – both then and now – that this surge in migration was some kind of surprise. It wasn't. It was a deliberate policy choice, arguably necessitated by a labour market under pressure. In the summer of 2022, job vacancies hit nearly 1.3 million, while more than five million Britons remained on out-of-work benefits. With no serious prospect to wean the country off welfare or to boost domestic recruitment, the government did what was easiest: it reached for the migration lever.
Daily Record
02-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
What are the new UK immigration rules as major reforms to come into effect this month?
Immigration rule changes have been made in a bid to cut the number of foreign nationals coming to live in the UK Immigration is the word on everyone's lips at the moment. From the UK Government issuing a warning to citizens travelling to the US, to a recent crackdown on illegal working in Scotland, the issue is pertinent - and ever-changing. Now, in just a few short weeks, a suite of new immigration rules could be implemented in the UK. The proposals, unveiled on Tuesday, July 1, apparently aim to reduce the number of foreign nationals settling in Britain. Politicians have claimed that robust strategies are essential to train and hire UK workers, with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper indicating that the government intends to totally revamp the existing immigration framework. "We are delivering a complete reset of our immigration system to restore proper control and order, after the previous government allowed net migration to quadruple in four years," Yvette Cooper stated. "These new rules mean stronger controls to bring migration down, to restore order to the immigration system and to ensure we focus on investing in skills and training here in the UK." So, what are the new UK immigration rules? The forthcoming measures will halt overseas recruitment for social care positions and increase salary thresholds for skilled foreign workers. The baseline minimum salary for obtaining a Skilled Worker visa is set to climb from £38,700 to £41,700. In addition, the minimum salary for those holding a relevant PhD will rise from £34,830 to £37,500. If sanctioned by MPs, the initial changes will take effect from Tuesday, July 22. As per the Standard's report, the government plans to roll out a new temporary jobs shortage list for sub-degree level roles that are crucial to key infrastructure projects, valid until the end of next year. These individuals will no longer benefit from salary and visa fee reductions. They will not have the privilege of bringing family members to the UK, either. "The key change is raising the threshold for Skilled Worker visas from occupations at Regulated Qualifications Framework level 3 and above, approximately A-level skills, to occupations at RQF level 6 and above, mainly graduate professions," Seema Malhotra, Migration Minister, said. "Salary requirements for work visas are being raised in line with the latest Office for National Statistics data, ahead of an upcoming thorough review of salary requirements (including discounts) by the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)." In the meantime, the government has warned it "will not hesitate" to restrict immigration access further "should there be clear signs of abuse and exploitation in sectors." Further changes to be implemented by the end of this year include raising the immigration skills charge, cracking down on people's level of English before entering the country, and setting out a new family framework. The government has also committed to abolishing the previous government's immigration salary list. The minimum salary is currently 80 per cent of the route's usual minimum rate to qualify for a Skilled Worker or Health and Care Worker visa. The government will announce further measures on asylum and border security later this year, too. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
Time of India
01-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
UK introduces major immigration reforms to restore ‘order and control'
The UK government is overhauling its immigration system to reduce net migration and prioritize domestic workforce development. New rules will remove over 100 occupations from the Skilled Worker visa route, raise skill and salary thresholds, and end overseas recruitment for care workers. A temporary shortage list will allow limited access to essential roles, contingent on workforce training strategies. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Also Read: UK food delivery platforms to enforce identity checks to curb irregular migrant workers Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Removing 111 occupations from the Skilled Worker visa list Ending overseas recruitment for care workers Restricting sub-degree level roles to a time-bound shortage list with strict conditions Commissioning a review of shortage roles, pay, and benefits by the Migration Advisory Committee The UK government today introduced major changes to its immigration system, aiming to reduce net migration , raise skill requirements, and end reliance on low-wage foreign workers. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the first set of reforms under the new Immigration White Paper, calling it 'a complete reset' of Britain's immigration the new rules, which will be laid before Parliament, over 100 occupations will be removed from eligibility under the Skilled Worker visa route. The threshold for skill levels and salary requirements will be raised, and the visa pathway for overseas social care workers will be closed. The government said these changes are designed to restore control to the system and prioritise domestic workforce development.'We are delivering a complete reset of our immigration system to restore proper control and order, after the previous government allowed net migration to quadruple in four years,' said Home Secretary Cooper in the official statement. 'These new rules mean stronger controls to bring migration down, to restore order to the immigration system and to ensure we focus on investing in skills and training here in the UK .'One of the central features of the reforms is the introduction of a temporary shortage list, which will allow limited access to roles deemed essential for industrial strategy and national infrastructure. Sectors included must present workforce strategies to train UK workers or risk losing access to international recruitment under this list will not be eligible to bring dependents and will no longer receive salary or visa fee concessions. These temporary measures will remain in place until the end of 2026, subject to review by the Migration Advisory ahead, the government also plans to raise the immigration skills charge , tighten language requirements across visa categories, and present a new family migration framework. Subject to parliamentary approval, most of the new rules will take effect from 22 July 2025, with transitional arrangements for overseas care workers already residing in the reforms are part of the broader Plan for Change, which seeks to overhaul border security and asylum policies by the end of the year.
