Bangladeshi curry chefs may be favourites for UK work visas

The UK Home Office is planning to give priority to chefs from Bangladesh in allotting working visas under the new immigration rules.

London, Mar 28 : The UK Home Office is planning to give priority to chefs from Bangladesh in allotting working visas under the new immigration rules.

The Home Office is preparing a shortage occupation list, which is being drawn up by a taskforce to identify jobs that cannot be filled by people from the European Union.

The team of economists is investigating whether care workers, chefs for Indian restaurants and hospital technicians, among other roles, are really needed rather than training up UK or European Union nationals.

Professor David Metcalf, Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, said his team would create a UK and Scottish list of occupations by June to be given special dispensation to work here.

"Essentially, Scotland gets a second bite of the cherry and that reflects both the slightly different demographics but also the different composition of industry," Scotsman.com reported Matcalf, as saying.

Earlier, 100 restaurateurs protested at the Scottish Parliament claiming that nearly half of Scotland's Indian restaurants could close because of a shortage of caterers.

Under the new points-based migration system due to come into force in the UK in late autumn, people seeking work visas could be given additional points if they have skills Britain needs.

ANI