This is a letter I have emailed to our local MPs, MSPs, the Home Office and Kevin Foster MP (Minister for Safe and Legal Migration) this morning.
Please make it as easy as possible for employers to sponsor Ukrainian workers
Many, including me, share the sense of dismay that the UK is appearing so unwelcoming to Ukranian refugees. There can be no justification for it.
The Ukrainian population is incredibly well educated and many have a fantastic command of the English language. Frankly we should be doing everything we can to encourage them to come here, given how much they could contribute. Given the labour shortages the UK is facing, there has to be a win-win here.
To that end, please can you do everything in your power to ensure that the flyered, but not yet available, sponsorship route will be as easy as possible for small employers to use so they can offer jobs to refugees for any job. With a job secured, housing and all other support required would take care of itself with only a positive effect for the UK.
The current employment sponsorship program will be totally inappropriate for this situation. As a small business owner, I have sponsored an employee previously and the whole process was a bureaucratic nightmare. There are many jobs where there are employers crying out for talent that fall in between menial seasonal work and skilled roles defined as being in short supply. Removing those restrictions would make it much easier for employers to make a contribution to the current crisis.
The ideal however would be if I were simply allowed to put anyone with a Ukrainian passport on my payroll.
If I can provide any more information that would help you make such a case in Parliament, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Your faithfully
Tim Barlow
Managing Director
Attacat Ltd
