“Can governments ever be tough enough on immigration? Ask any canvasser and they report grim news from the doorstep: whatever the issue – housing, jobs, benefits – in these hard times the blame has been successfully diverted on to migrants for taking jobs and homes. Tighten the screw, pull up the drawbridge, cut off the attractions that draw them to the UK, but no political action is ever enough to sate the demand for tougher border defences.
The government frequently takes noisy public action, even when it knows some things are far worse than useless. Economically, it’s madness to cut off valuable students from China and India for the sake of hitting a meaningless “net” migration statistic. Morally, some “action” means deliberately turning a blind eye to some abuse that would shock many of the same people who want immigration cut, if they knew.
Britain is importing domestic slaves and ignoring what becomes of them so long as they vanish from the official figures. Wealthy foreigners are encouraged to come to London to spend their money, and last year they brought with them 15,745 domestic servants on overseas domestic worker visas. Rich families from India, Nigeria and the Middle East bring servants from the Philippines, Indonesia or elsewhere, usually not their own country. A year ago the government changed the visa requirements, making these servants the absolute slaves of their employers, with no escape from frequently appalling abuse.”
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