The UK general election is approaching, and immigration policy has become a focal point of public concern and debate among various political parties. The UK Labour government has launched a new international strategy regarding immigration policy, aiming to enhance cooperation with governments of countries that export immigrants and international organizations to further combat illegal immigration and protect the nation's borders.
This new strategy, titled "International Challenges, International Solutions: Managing the Movement of People and Goods," has been jointly developed by the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. A senior official from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Louis, stated that the formulation of the UK immigration policy focuses on two aspects.
The Minister for Borders and Immigration at the Home Office, Woolas, said: “The starting point for launching this new strategy is to demonstrate that good management of immigration affairs can benefit our economic and social development. To achieve this goal, we will strengthen cooperation with governments of various countries and relevant institutions. This strategy is also an update to a policy we released in 2007, and since then we have made significant progress, the most important of which includes the points-based system.”
The UK government decided in 2007 to adopt a five-tier points-based system for new immigrants, similar to those in Australia and Canada, with the scoring criteria based on the professional skills and technical levels of applicants and the demands of the UK labor market. Woolas stated, “This five-tier points-based system allows us to provide more convenient services for those who wish to work and study in the UK, while also enabling us to better prevent those who attempt to abuse the relevant immigration policies.”
Regarding illegal immigration, the Director of International Affairs at the UK Border Agency, Woodward, stated that sharing intelligence and data with governments of countries that export immigrants has helped the UK alleviate related issues to some extent. She cited cooperation with the Chinese government in this regard.
She said: “Last year, we issued visas to approximately 200,000 Chinese citizens to travel to the UK, making China the second country after India with the highest number of visas issued for travel to the UK. However, there are indeed many Chinese individuals who enter illegally. In the early years of this century, it was very difficult to repatriate illegal immigrants from China, but we have since strengthened cooperation with relevant departments such as the Ministry of Public Security of China, which assist us in confirming the identities of illegal immigrants, allowing us to repatriate these individuals to China. Therefore, we hope to work closely with relevant Chinese departments to jointly curb illegal immigration and encourage legal immigration.”
