THE British government yesterday released details of a new points-based immigration system aimed at making it easier for highly skilled professionals to enter, settle and study.

Under the system highly skilled workers such as doctors, engineers and finance experts would be admitted without having a job offer, while lower skilled professionals such as nurses and teachers would be admitted depending on demand.

The system, which will be phased in over the next two years, will apply to citizens from countries outside the European Union, and the European Economic Area.

“We want students to come and study in our universities and we want highly skilled workers that we need for our economy,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair told students in India yesterday through a live video conference link.

“But we want to prevent abuses of the immigration system,” Blair added.

The plan is also aimed at streamlining Britian’s 80 different categories of migration to some five categories or tiers. These are:

.Tier 1 – Highly skilled individuals;

.Tier 2 – Skilled workers with a job offer;

.Tier 3 – Limited numbers of low-skilled workers needed to fill temporary labour shortages;

.Tier 4 – Students; and

.Tier 5 – Youth mobility and temporary workers, people allowed to work in the UK for a limited period of time to satisfy non-economic objectives, for example, working holidaymakers.

“Obviously, it is aimed at trying to encourage qualified individuals to enter Britain,” said Mark Waller, Third Secretary, with responsibility for political affairs at the local British High Commission in Kingston.

The points-based system is seen as a key part of the UK government’s five-year strategy for asylum and immigration, published in February last year. That document stated that the challenge was to maintain public confidence in the system by agreeing to immigration where it is perceived to be in the UK’s best interest, and preventing it where it is not.

Waller added that there would also be a category covering entertainers who would also have to qualify to get entry permits to perform in the UK.

In a release, the British High Commission said that among the other new concepts to be introduced that will affect Jamaicans are the introduction of “a single application process for those wanting to work in the UK – eliminating the two-stage process whereby the employer can be granted a work permit but the prospective migrant can subsequently be turned down for entry clearance or leave to remain in two completely different decisions.”

In relation to sponsorship, the high commission said “all applicants in tiers 2 to 5 will need a sponsor, who is either an employee, educational institution or government (for tier 5-youth mobility). The sponsor’s rating (track record and policies in sponsoring migrants) will determine whether migrants receive more or fewer points for their certificates”.

There will also be a skills-based authority – the Skills Advisory Body – that will determine whether a sector qualifies as a shortage sector.

Attempts to get comments from local labour representatives on the likely effects of the move were unsuccessful. However, immigration advocates in Britain have expressed concerns that the plan could make it tougher for lower-skilled workers to stay in the country, and create a climate ripe for abuse by exploitative employers.