Immigration news

The UK's immigration minister, Mark Harper MP, has resigned after revealing that, for seven years, he had been employing an immigrant with no right to work in the UK.

Mr Harper said that he had done nothing illegal but said that 'as Immigration Minister…I should hold myself to a higher standard than expected in others'. Mr Harper was responsible for driving the Coalition government's controversial new Immigration Bill through parliament.

Prime Minister David Cameron accepted Mr Harper's resignation 'with regret'.

A UK group which lobbies on behalf of technology start-up companies has called for a reform to the UK's employment-based immigration system to allow firms in the sector to recruit the best talent.

Russ Shaw of Tech London Advocates told Computer Weekly magazine 'We'd love to have a lot more home-grown talent but we need to supplement that with global talent to build and grow these businesses. We need to adjust the immigration policies and many other things'.

The President of the European Commission has criticised UK Prime Minister David Cameron for his 'narrow, chauvinistic' policies and pronouncements on the European Union and immigration. Jose Manuel Barroso warned that, in the run-up to the EU elections in May 2014, 'we are seeing a rise in extremism'.

Three English cricket writers were forced to leave Australia before the end of England's disastrous cricket tour because their visas had expired. The men, John Etheridge of The Sun, Paul Newman of The Daily Mail and Dean Wilson of The Mirror had 90-day, non-renewable visas which expired when the tour still had several days left to run.

The UK's House of Commons voted on the Coalition government's Immigration bill on Friday 31st January 2014. The bill was passed by the Commons and will now proceed to the House of Lords. By law, the Lords cannot legally prevent the passage of the bill, but they can delay it by introducing amendments and returning it for further votes in the Common.

The American clothing company American Apparel has paid $4.8m to settle a claim brought by shareholders in the US Federal Court in New York. The shareholders claimed that American Apparel had risked their investment by hiring thousands of workers who were living in the US illegally.

The events behind the case took place between 2007 and 2008. In 2007, the shareholders claim, the company learned that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was planning an inspection of its California manufacturing plant.