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The UK's Home Secretary Theresa May is to tell a meeting of European Union immigration and policing ministers that the current right to free movement throughout the EU is being abused and must be limited. She will tell her fellow home affairs ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg on Friday 7th June 2013 that the free movement directive should be amended to allow EU countries to remove EU nationals who migrate with no intention of working.
Seven Indian MPs have travelled to Washington to lobby Congressmen about the comprehensive immigration reform act currently being debated by the US Congress. The MPs say that proposed changes to the H-1B visa system will cause considerable harm to the interests of Indian companies which operate in the US.
Australia has a new cricketing hero; Australian immigration minister Brendan O'Connor. The Australian team needed help and Mr O'Connor has leapt to the rescue. He will not, sadly, be playing himself but he is responsible for a new law being rushed through the Australian parliament that will allow a Pakistani-born refugee called Fawad Ahmed to play for the Australian national team a month sooner than is currently the case.
The latest figures released by the UK government show that the UK immigration authorities managed to process only 51% of employment based UK visas within their Service Standard period (four weeks for postal applications) in the year 2012-13.
They were only able to process 25% of student visa applications within the service standard. Their service standard target was to deal with 65% of employment visas and 85% of student visas within the service standard period of four weeks.
A UK newspaper has reported that the UK is to require EU citizens to work in the UK for 'up to a year' before they can claim benefits. If this happens, it will escalate a dispute between the UK and the EU over 'benefits tourism'.
A group of right-wing Conservative MPs has issued a report which suggests that the UK government should raise money and diversify its economy away from its dependence on the European Union by selling visas to rich individuals and international companies.
The Free Enterprise Group is a recently formed group of 43 Conservative MPs. Its website says that 'Conservatives need to recast the argument about free enterprise for a new age or risk losing the debate to a tide of anti-market socialisation'.