UK’s Cameron to toughen curbs on immigration

LONDON (Reuters) : Britain plans tougher curbs on immigration to cut the number of people the country absorbs each year to tens of thousands, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday, an uncompromising message which will please his party’s right wing.

Cameron wants to ensure that newcomers have enough money to avoid relying on Britain’s comprehensive welfare system, and that jobs created in the country cut the unemployment lines, rather than going to foreigners.

In a speech to business leaders, Cameron said he wanted to “attract the brightest and best to Britain” but took aim at abuses of the system such as sham and forced marriages and visas granted for places at bogus student colleges.

“Excessive immigration also brings pressures ... pressures on our schools, housing and healthcare,” he said.

Cameron’s Conservatives want to reduce net immigration from more than 200,000 people per year to a few tens of thousands which they argue is more manageable.

Reducing immigration is seen as a way of easing pressure on public funds at a time when the Conservative-led coalition is making deep cuts in public spending.

The policy appeals to the right wing of the Conservatives but has caused friction with the Liberal Democrats, their junior coalition partner.

Britain has a large immigrant population drawn from former colonies in the Indian sub-continent, Africa and the Caribbean. More recently, large numbers of people have come from European Union nations like Poland which are not subject to curbs.

All three main political parties have found immigration a difficult issue.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught on microphone dismissing one of his Labour party supporters as a “bigoted woman” when she challenged him on the subject during the 2010 election campaign, which Labour lost.

Cameron called on Britons to report suspected illegal immigrants to the authorities. “Together we will reclaim our borders and send illegal immigrants home,” he said.

The government wants to ensure that people bringing their relatives to Britain can support them, he added.

“We’re going to look at further measures to ensure financial independence: discounting promises of support from family and friends, and whether a financial bond would be appropriate in some cases,” he said.

“We’re also consulting on how to tackle abuse of the system, to make sure that family migrants who come here are in a genuine relationship with their partner.”

Cameron gave the example of a Pakistani man granted a visa on the basis of his marriage to someone settled in Britain.

“He obtained indefinite leave to remain and then immediately divorced his UK-based spouse. He returned to Pakistan and re-married and then applied for entry clearance for his new spouse,” he added.

“We simply cannot sit back and allow the system to be abused in this way. So we will make migrants wait longer, to show they really are in a genuine relationship before they can get settlement.”

Cameron said breaching rules intended to prevent forced marriage would be made a criminal offence and tougher controls could follow.