Keep Seasonal Worker Visas and Make Process More Flexible: Migration Advisory Committee

The UK should keep offering visas to seasonal workers and make the process more flexible, the government’s independent immigration advisory group said on Tuesday. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) reviewed the Seasonal Worker Scheme (SWS) and said it was in Britain’s interests to continue to allow people to apply for visas to “ensure food security.” The body, which advises ministers on immigration, made a string of recommendations on how the scheme should operate in the future. It stated that the farming sector’s reliance on migrant seasonal workers, for jobs such as fruit picking in the summer, is “unlike any other in the UK,” owing to “physically demanding low-wage seasonal work in often rural locations which can make the recruitment of domestic workers challenging.”...