Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner reaction: Government announces new UK points-based immigration system

 

The Government has today (19 February 2020) launched a new points-based immigration system with new criteria for migrants who want to work in the UK prioritising highly-skilled workers (see Policy paper: The UK's points-based immigration system).

 

The Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, Dame Sara Thornton, said:

 

“In setting out this new system for migrants and with an Immigration Bill on the horizon, the government is bringing in significant changes to the entry routes for migrants in a range of sectors.

We must be alive to the fact that traffickers will seek every opportunity to abuse new immigration policies and so the protection of vulnerable people needs to be front and centre of the debate. 

I welcome the government’s commitment to protect ‘individuals from exploitation by criminal traffickers and unscrupulous employers’ and I will be closely monitoring the impact these policy changes have on  trafficking and exploitation in the most insecure sectors, particularly agriculture, hospitality and construction.”

  

Read the Government’s policy paper here