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U.K. immigration clampdown

LONDON: Britain on Saturday signalled a shift in its immigration policy with Immigration Minister Phil Woolas proposing a cap on the number of immigrants who should be allowed to enter Britain every year.

He said it had been “too easy to get into this country in the past,” but now it was “going to get harder” as he planned a “tougher” immigration policy to protect local jobs amid fears of large-scale unemployment threatened by the current economic crisis. This would mainly affect immigrants from Asia and Africa. Mr. Woolas said: “As we stand, we don’t know how many foreign nationals there are. I want to end up in a situation where we know and the public know how many people are coming in and going out of our country... There has to be a balance between the number of people coming in and the number of people leaving.” Mr. Woolas’ remarks, in an interview to The Times, were challenged by his party colleague and chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, Keith Vaz, who expressed his astonishment.

Mr. Woolas, whose Oldham constituency has a Pakistani and Banglaldeshi population, denied he was pandering to racism and said immigrants were the “strongest advocate of fair and firm immigration rules.”

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