The border strengthening plan will be unveiled on Monday, but today Prithi Patel presented some details about the changes that will be introduced to “facilitate” immigration to the UK.
The minister stressed that the reform would include full digital border management, which would facilitate the process for business, and that “for the first time it would allow for an accurate count of people entering and leaving the UK”.
The Interior Ministry’s report says that those coming to the UK without a visa or immigration status will need electronic travel authorization (ETA) ‘online’ based on what they need to travel to the United States, with about 30 million ETA applications being processed each year.
According to the government, the new system will allow automated security checks before arriving in the UK, with the aim of “preventing serious foreign criminals from entering the country”.
One of the goals of Brexit supporters was to tighten immigration conditions, ending the independence movement between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
The Interior Ministry says it has not properly estimated the exact number of immigrants in the UK, citing data from the “settlement plan” for example, a plan to allow the maintenance of EU citizens who left the country before December 31, 2020. The same rights to live, work and access social security in the UK after Brexit.
At the end of April, there were more than 5.4 million applications from foreigners living in the country, and more than 4.9 million were granted immigration status, according to the Interior Ministry, with the number of EU citizens living in the UK estimated at three million.
This boundary strengthening program is part of immigration policy reform, which is now based on a “points” system that favors qualified employees over low-scoring workers.
In order to obtain a visa in the United Kingdom, qualifications, English knowledge and financial resources are taken into account.
In March, the British government also introduced reform of the asylum system.
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