This week, with minimal fanfare, the renegotiated UK–India trade deal came into effect – and buried deep within it was confirmation that the much-criticised National Insurance exemption for seconded Indian workers has been extended from three years to five. The Indian government has briefed domestic media, telling them the deal will “ease temporary entry for business visitors, transferees, investors, service suppliers and independent professionals”.
Migration Watch warned from the outset that this deal would be bad for Britain. Ministers will protest that the exemption applies only to a limited category of seconded workers, not all Indian workers. True, but this misses the point. This is part of a deliberate strategy by India, and other labour-exporting countries, to offload surplus workers, by hook or by crook. The NI exemption was at least agreed by our government via a formal, reciprocal agreement, even if it is a deeply damaging agreement. Other countries don’t bother with agreements; they simply exploit our own foolish visa laws.
Consider what else emerged this week: sanctioned Iranian regime-owned banks hold Home Office licences to sponsor workers into the UK. These banks are allegedly contributing to “the proliferation or development of nuclear weapons in, or for use in, Iran”, yet our government trusts them to import Iranian nationals. Why?
The simple answer is that the register of businesses approved to sponsor skilled workers has ballooned out of all control. An excellent illustration was provided this week by Daxwells Memon: 77 licensed skilled worker visa sponsors on the Whitechapel Road in East London alone, including “Ukay International Fish and Meat Bazar Ltd” and “Javed Phonehouse”. Do we really need to import halal butchers and mobile phone repairmen from overseas?
Unsurprisingly, Indian nationals make up the single largest group of work visa recipients – of the 89,406 work visa recipients since the fourth quarter of 2024, 21,334 were Indian, or about 24%. Given the calibre of companies approved to sponsor visas, how confident can we be that those Indian nationals are genuinely skilled and necessary workers? “Ukay International Fish and Meat Bazar Ltd” will not be sponsoring a doctor or an engineer. Britain is flying blind. We cannot trust the statistics and justifications offered by a government that cannot even adequately scrutinise the companies it permits to import so many people.
The migration crisis is multi-pronged, but the issuing of work visas to unskilled and lower-skilled workers (and their dependants) is perhaps its most egregious element. It must be addressed. Migration Watch will shortly publish its own report into work visas. Do look out for it
