Migrant rules feel the heat

Migrant rules feel the heat

By Andrew Taylor

Published: February 14 2008 02:00 | Last updated: February 14 2008 02:00

Ministers were urged yesterday to ease restrictions on Bangladeshi migrants in a bid to avert a shortage of kitchen staff in the nation's favourite curry houses.

The call to modify the government's new immigration points system comes as Alex Waugh, director of the Rice Association, has cautioned that the price of the staple food was expected to soar in restaurants and shops because of shortages in global rice supplies.

Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, warned that restrictions on lower-skilled immigrants coming from outside the European Union had left many Bangladeshis struggling to enter the country.

Limits have been tightened following the arrival in the UK of large numbers of eastern and central European migrant workers after their countries joined the EU in 2004.

Workers from Bangladesh provide the vast bulk of kitchen staff in Indian restaurants. The immigration charity said at least 27,500 extra workers were needed if some of the country's favourite meals such as chicken tikka masala were not to disappear from the high street.

Mr Best said that attempts to encourage eastern Europeans to work in curry restaurants would fail because they "have no cultural sensitivity towards, or understanding of, the curry industry". He has written to Liam Byrne, immigration minister, asking for rules to be relaxed for Bangladeshi catering workers.

Pressure on rice prices had increased after India and China restricted exports amid concerns they do not have enough to feed their own populations, Mr Waugh told the Financial Times earlier this week.

Thai exporters had also temporarily stopped making export offers because local prices were rising so quickly. Thai fragrant rice is now selling for about $870 (£443) a tonne, some $300 a tonne higher than a year ago.