According to an 82-page proposal in the UK Home Office leaked to The Guardian, Britain will end the free movement of labour immediately after Brexit and would only make entry exclusive to highly-skilled EU workers.

The proposal marked as highly sensitive and dated August 2017, outlines the UK’s new immigration policy upon Brexit which emphasizes a provision that caters for Britons only.

A statement from the document reads, “Put plainly, this means that, to be considered valuable to the country as a whole, immigration should benefit not just the migrants themselves but also make existing residents better off.

Here are the citable notes from the document labelled “The Border, Immigration and Citizenship System After the UK Leaves the European Union” :

• Britain plans to restrict EU immigration by giving “preference in the job market to only resident workers”. It would also restrict EU nationals from seeking work by reducing the opportunities for workers to settle in the UK for a long-term, and limit the number of low-skilled EU citizens coming to the UK to work.

• The plan seeks to scrap EU rules on the rights of extended family members to reside in the UK. According to the document, “there is virtually no limit on the distance of the relationship between the EU citizen and the family member in the current system. We propose to define family members as direct family members only, plus durable partners”.

• A minimum of £18,600 a year wage will be required for any spouse living outside the EU who wish to join their EU national partners already residing in the UK.

• Although there will be no new border checks for EU nationals, they would be required to travel on passports and not national identity cards. Also, new EU arrivals would be deemed to leave after three to six months, a wish to stay longer would require an application for a biometric residence permit, which may include a fingerprint.

• In contrast to the “free movement directive” policy of the EU, residence permits will not be granted to jobseekers, and a specific “income threshold” will be introduced for “self-sufficient” migrants. In addition, Britain would introduce a “right to work check” for migrants which will be determined by employers, failure to which will attract legal sanctions.

Adegbite Adedotun