London, Jun 4 (EFE).- British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party on Tuesday announced plans to introduce an annual visa cap to guarantee a decrease in legal immigration in the coming years.
“We have taken bold action to cut the number of people coming to this country. The plan is working but migration levels are still too high,” Sunak told the media, explaining his plans, which he hopes to implement if he wins the general election scheduled for July 4.
Immigration is one of the main areas debated ahead of the elections called by Sunak in May.
The Sunak government has recently tightened the rules for obtaining visas and reached a deal with Rwanda to deport immigrants who entered the country illegally after traveling in boats across the English Channel that separates France and England.
Under the Tories’ plan, the UK parliament will have a direct role in setting immigration levels, allowing lawmakers to vote on the number.
The annual limit will be imposed on the number of visas granted to those who enter the country for work or family reasons.
Temporary work visas, such as those for seasonal agricultural workers, would not fall under the limit.
As part of the plan, government ministers would ask the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to recommend a level for the annual cap, which would then be presented to Parliament for a vote.
Before recommending appropriate limits, the MAC would consult businesses, public health, local authorities, and public services.
Sunak criticized the main opposition Labor Party for not having a policy to reduce immigration and claimed that only the Conservatives would take the bold steps required to do so.
Labor Party’s Home Affairs spokesperson, Yvette Cooper, described the proposed limit on work and family visas as a meaningless announcement and said that the Conservative Party had allowed net migration to triple since the last election despite promising to reduce it.
Net migration, which is the difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants, stood at 686,000 in the UK in 2023.
It represents a 10 percent drop compared to the previous year, according to the latest data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
However, the parties say that the level of immigration is very high. EFE
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