Friday, 11 April – Thursday, 17 April 2014 ISSUE 526
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B R I TA I N ’ S N O . 1 A F R I C A N N E W S PA P E R Nollywood helps power Nigeria into Africa’s largest economy SEE PAGE 12
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Sajid Javid appointed as new culture minister SEE PAGE 2
Visa reforms are harming UK’s soft power
SEE PAGE 6
Exposed: May’s magic missing migrants By Alan Oakley
Home Secretary Theresa May is reportedly considering a minor change to the Tier 2 (Intra Company Transfer) (Short Term) visa rules aimed at reducing the perceived number of immigrants in the UK by as many as 20,000. The move, however, turns out to be little more than a ruse that will have absolutely no effect on the real number of immigrants in the country. By changing the maximum stay on the short term ICT visa from 12 months to a shorter term, even 11 months or 364 days, Mrs May would remove 19 - 20,000 people from the immigration figures at a stroke, since they will then no longer be classed as ‘resident’ in the UK and therefore be excluded from immigration figures.
According to the Financial Times, civil servants at the Home Office have proposed the change in order to reduce the bottom line immigration figure. The FT also reports that business opposes the change. It reports that Neil Carberry of the employers’ body the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said: “We are in a pretty dangerous place if we are redesigning the tiers of the immigration system in order to meet a political target (...) This would undermine the image of the UK as a place where we welcome highly skilled people”. David Cameron made what many now see as a rash pre-election promise to reduce net annual immigration to below 100,000 by 2015. Net annual immigration is calculated by taking the number of people who arrive in the country intending to reside permanently over a given year and subtracting the number of UK residents who leave on a long term basis over the same period.
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Theresa May