Tougher restrictions on EU migrants

2013 Queen’s Speech Addresses Immigration Concerns

10:57 14 May 2013

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron proposed tough immigration restrictions it came to light during the Queen’s Speech 2013.

The purpose of the new immigration bill will be to further reform the current immigration laws by tightening the law, limiting financial benefits to migrants, increasing the power to enforce those laws and stiffly penalizing those immigrants who abuse public services.

The new bill will accomplish the following:

 

• Allow tough sanctions against businesses that use illegal labour, including levying stiff financial fines

 

• Require the landlords of public housing to verify the immigration status of tenants, and levy fines against those who fail to do so. The Government will consult on what those fines should be, up to thousands of pounds

 

• Regulate migrant access to the NHS and ensure that all temporary migrants make a contribution

 

• The new bill will also contain provisions that give the full force of legislation to the policy of Article 8 already adopted in the immigration rules, ensuring that the right to stay in the country because of family relations is not abused, thereby allowing the courts to balance criminal actions against the right to remain in the country.

A key component of the bill would be to limit the access to certain financial benefits for EEA national jobseekers and retained workers to six months.

This reform would mean that EEA nationals would not have the right to claim certain government benefits for longer than six months if they are not actively seeking work or if they cannot show that they have a genuine opportunity to obtain work.

Immigrants would also face stiffer restrictions of local residency before being allowed to financially benefit from social housing programs.

This will be accomplished through new statutory housing guidelines that would define a reasonable period of residency as between two and five years.

 

The bill would also require that an individual must be a lawful resident for a period of at least 12 months before being granted access to civil legal aid.