Media reports May 08

30 May 08

‘Clueless’ gangmaster broke migrant laws
A “clueless” Scottish gangmaster yesterday became the first person sentenced for breaking new laws designed to protect vulnerable migrant workers. Fiona Clark, 34, of Perth, was ordered to carry out 140 hours of community service and placed on probation for 18 months for providing labour to farms [...]

The end of EU migrant restrictions: countdown to May 2009

There are an estimated 665,000 A8 migrants working in the UK, with 63,000 in Scotland. Many are living in sub-standard, overcrowded and insecure housing, and trapped in exploitative employment, with severe barriers to seeking the protections of employment law, homelessness assistance and the welfare state.
From 1st May 2009, the restrictions on the rights of A8 [...]

Take action: asylum destitution resource pack

Destitution Action Pack – superb new resource
Church Action on Poverty have worked with Positive Action in Housing and Training Campaigns Advice to produce a simple, easy to read pack that gives you the information, advice and encouragement to take action to stop the destitution of people refused asylum. Uniquely it links up the practical support [...]

Call to scrap the Worker Registration Scheme

On May 20th, as the latest figures for the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) were published, an alliance of employers, unions and migrant groups called for the Scheme to be scrapped. This follows a call by Labour MP Stephen Pound the previous week, ahead of a Westminster Hall debate.
From TUC press release:
The TUC, the Association of [...]

‘Papers Please’: MRN research into workplace ID checks

From May edition of Migrant Rights News, from the Migrant Rights Network
Thousands of people are now being required to produce evidence of their immigration status by employers, since the ‘civil penalty’ regime – and maximum employer fines of £10,000 for employment of undocumented migrants – came into operation at the end of February 2008. This [...]

Highland survey on youth migration

A new survey will attempt to uncover what makes young people want to stay or leave the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
Launched online, the project has been aimed at 15 to 30-year-olds who have been brought up, or moved to the area.
Organisers Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), said the region had struggled to retain high [...]

Does free migration threaten the welfare state?

Sweden’s Globalisation Council have just published a report entitled “Is Free Migration Compatible with a European-Style Welfare State?” It’s by Phillipe Legrain, author of Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them, and his report concludes that
while free migration may pose challenges to a European-style welfare state, the two are not incompatible. On the contrary: by boosting economic [...]

Call for new deal for 2 million vulnerable workers

Two million UK workers are ‘trapped in a continual round of low-paid and insecure work where mistreatment is the norm’ according to the findings of the TUC’s Commission on Vulnerable Employment.
The Commission’s report, available free on-line at www.vulnerableworkers.org.uk, found that migrants in the UK were particularly vulnerable to exploitation due to the nature of their [...]

Tighter new rules for skilled foreign workers

6 May 08
Foreign workers hoping to fill skilled vacancies in Britain’s labour market will have to meet strict new criteria, the Government announced today. The Home Office published proposals for much tighter skilled and temporary worker tiers of its new Points Based System (PBS). From this autumn British employers will have to prove that no [...]

“A new regime”: “shameful and unjust”

5 May 08
The BBC assisted the government in demonstrating the “new regime” of UK immigration policy-in-action with a dramatic televised raid on a factory, while, at Westminster Cathedral, a Mass in Support of Migrant Workers heard a senior Bishop describe the policy as “shameful and unjust”
Immigration Minister Liam Byrne described a “new regime, part of [...]