Immigration rules row

Last Modified: 19 Apr 2008
By: Tom Clarke

Restaurateurs argue immigration rules mean they can't bring over skilled chefs and they plan to protest.

Ethnic restaurateurs say if the government doesn't act, staff shortages will force restaurants to close.

The manager of the Loon Tau restaurant is Chinatown is worried this kitchen may soon be short handed. She says new immigration rules threaten her traditional supply of kitchen staff from China. She's tried employing Eastern Europeans, but it didn't work.

There's so much concern about the new points based immigration system, a fusion of Indian, Turkish, Bangladeshi and Chinese restrainers, are rounding on the government, afraid for their livelihoods.

The new immigration system will affect the restaurant industry in three ways: Firstly it will become harder to import skilled labour. Chefs, wanting to work here must have formal qualifications, speak good English, and prove no one else can do the job.

It will also mean bringing in temporary low skilled workers from anywhere outside the EU is now banned.

And the final the point to remember is that the government has introduced tougher penalties for anyone found employing workers illegally.

And they're putting those rules into force; recently London's Chinatown and elsewhere have seen high-profile raids on those employing undocumented workers.

We met with one man who's been living here illegally for six years. After a string of hard factory jobs he got work in a restaurant kitchen.

Some migrants are now paying agents up to £30,000 to get them into the UK, so if they can no longer get jobs in the restaurant trade, they'll be forced to work somewhere else to recoup their money.

That's what worries journalist Shau Hung Pai. For the last two years she's been undercover as an illegal Chinese worker. Her experiences form the basis of a book to be published next week.

In a statement the home office told us: "We know many people will be anxious about the rules because they are becoming tougher. Under the points system only those with the skills that Britain needs can come to work or study. It ensures that the door is closed to migrants that Britain doesn't need."

The ethnic restaurants are hoping that specialist kitchen staff will qualify for exemptions to the new immigration rules being published in June. If they don't, they warn many restaurants, too small to train new chefs will go out of business.