6,000 skilled people were denied entry to the UK last year due to visa caps. The Campaign for Science and Engineering reported on a Freedom of Information request to the Home Office which showed that thousands of workers had been denied entry between December 2017 and March 2018.
The Government have refused over 6,000 applications for skilled overseas workers holding a job offer due to an arbitrary cap on visas, including engineers, tech professionals, doctors and teachers.
Many posts up and down the country are being left unfilled because overseas workers can’t get entry. We need more nurses, doctors and NHS staff. We need more teachers and engineers. The majority of people denied visas were either medical professionals or IT/Tech workers.
Liberal Democrat Science Spokesperson Layla Moran MP said:
These figures are truly shocking. These are people that the Government should be bending over backwards to welcome to the UK. Instead they are being denied visas for vital roles in our NHS, schools, universities, science and tech sectors.
These are some of the most saleable people in the jobs market who can and will go elsewhere if the Government doesn’t get a grip and sort this situation out as a matter of urgency.