Post-Brexit immigration laws are putting the future of Britain’s beloved curry houses in danger, industry leaders have warned.
The country’s new points-based immigration system is aimed at preventing what the government deems to be ‘low-skilled’ workers from coming into the UK.
But according to experts, the changes could leading to restaurants having to take on chefs with zero experience in South Asian cuisine.
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Asad Khan, who runs Surrey-based India Dining, expressed his fears the new rules would making training foreign chefs “impossible”
He said, as reported by the Daily Star: “[The] new immigration rules will make it almost impossible for curry houses to bring trained foreign chefs to the UK.”
They can no longer employ EU migrant workers to fill those roles.
And the founder of networking group Nation, Ash Balakrishnan, said: “[Asian restaurateurs] cannot afford to employ skilled overseas curry chefs.
“They cannot employ second-generation Anglo-Indian and Anglo-Bangladeshis because they don’t want to follow their parents into the restaurant sector, and they can no longer employ EU migrant workers to fill those roles.”
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Home Secretary Priti Patel argued that the Government’s intention was to “encourage people with the right talent” come to work here.
The curry is now as synonymous with British culture as favourites like fish and chips and the Sunday roast.
As an industry it’
