New 'immigrant tax' for non-Europeans in UK

LONDON: Non-European visitors to Britain are to be hit with a new "immigrant tax" in a move criticised by immigration campaigners and opposition politicians as unfair, discriminatory and a gimmick. The new "tax", which could be as high as 10 per cent of the standard 200-pound, six-month visa fee for non-European visitors, is expected to raise millions of pounds for the exchequer. It is officially meant to make foreign visitors pay their way for the use of British schools and hospitals. The special levy will affect Indians and other non-European visitors to Britain but eastern Europeans - currently the largest group of foreign migrants - will paradoxically escape the charge because they do not need visas. The "tax", which is officially meant to force foreigners to contribute towards the extra expense incurred by schools, hospitals and the police force in providing services, has been derided by the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS), the UK's largest charity providing representation and advice in immigration and asylum law. Keith Best, head of the IAS, said non-European migrants would be unfairly taxed because most foreign workers were healthy young men, who did not use hospitals or schools. He said it was unfortunate that "migrants are being made the 'milch cow' to make up the shortfall in government finances". Shadow immigration minister Damien Green added that the proposals were a "gimmick" and the immigrant tax would raise only £15 million a year, which was a "drop in the ocean" compared to the extra expense for schools, hospitals and the police caused by immigration. In line with main opposition Conservative Party's policy on immigration, Green said the only solution was an annual limit on migration. Wednesday's proposals come after months of constant complaints from MPs in constituencies with high migrant populations that public services are overstretched and near breaking point. But even though the currently high levels of migration to Britain are mainly from eastern Europe, it is visually-distinct visitors such as South Asians, who are being targeted by a government increasingly keen to talk and act on the electorally-sensitive issue of immigration. Unnamed government sources have already admitted that the immigrant tax may serve as a deterrent to potential immigrants rather than a ready source of huge sums of cash by having "the effect of conveying to immigrants that they do have to pay their way and it may also dissuade a few from applying." Barely a week ago, one of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's most senior advisers warned that the economic benefits of allowing in millions of migrant workers had been vastly over-estimated. Lord Turner, a former director of Britain's largest employers' organization, the CBI, said in a paper titled 'Do We Need More Immigrants And Babies?' that the arguments for immigrants to prevent Britain facing a shortage of workers was mostly "economically illiterate". Britain raised nearly £200 million from 2.7 million visa applications in the year till 2007 and the new tax, decried as "arbitrary" by some Indian tourists here will push up takings.