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Curry worries spread in Britain

British immigration ministers were urged yesterday to ease restrictions on Bangladeshi migrant workers in an attempt to help avert a shortage of kitchen staff in the nation's "curry houses".

  • Reuters
  • Published: 00:45 February 14, 2008
  • Gulf News

London: British immigration ministers were urged yesterday to ease restrictions on Bangladeshi migrant workers in an attempt to help avert a shortage of kitchen staff in the nation's "curry houses".

At least 27,500 extra workers are needed if some of the country's favourite sub-continental meals such as chicken tikka masala are not to disappear from the high street, the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) charity said. The shortage, the result of the government's new immigration points-based system, has left Bangladeshi restaurants in serious trouble and facing irreparable damage, IAS chief executive Keith Best said.

Restrictions on lower-skilled migrants from outside the EU have left many Bangladeshis struggling to find work in Britain. Limits have been tightened since migrants from new European Union member countries in eastern Europe gained employment rights in Britain following accession to the EU bloc.

Best said attempts to get eastern Europeans to work in curry restaurant kitchens have failed because they "have no cultural sensitivity towards the curry industry".

"The lack of appreciation of the crisis facing the industry could do it irreparable damage," he said. He has written to the immigration minister Liam Byrne asking for the rules to be relaxed for Bangladeshi catering workers.

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