News / EU / Foreign Policy

Free movement of labor with EU will end after Brexit: UK ministers

Thursday, 27 July 2017 8:51 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 27 July 2017 8:55 AM ]

Britain's Minister of State for Immigration Brandon Lewis (L) and Britain's Attorney General Jeremy Wright arrives to attend a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in central London on June 20, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The free movement of workers between the European Union and United Kingdom will end when Britain withdraws from the union, according to British ministers.

"Free movement of labor ends when we leave the European Union in spring 2019," immigration minister Brandon Lewis said on Thursday.

The minister also said a new immigration system would be in place by April 2019, when the UK is scheduled to leave the EU.

"Once we have left the EU, this government will apply its own immigration rules and requirements that will meet the needs of UK businesses, but also of wider society," Interior Minister Amber Rudd said.

"I also want to reassure businesses and EU nationals that we will ensure there is no 'cliff edge' once we leave the bloc," she added.

Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd arrives for a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in central London on June 13, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

A new research shows more than one million foreign workers are planning to leave Britain as London is negotiating Brexit, amid fears the country is facing a Brexit brain drain.

According to the survey conducted by a global accountancy giant, Deloitte, about 36 percent of foreign workers in Britain say they are preparing to leave the country by 2022, with 26 percent planning to move out by 2020.

These figures show that 1.2 million non-British workers out of 3.4 million in the country are likely to leave the country which is expected to create a severe jobs crisis in the country.

Highly skilled workers from European countries are the most likely to leave the UK, with 47 percent thinking about departing in the next five years.

More than a million foreign workers are preparing to ditch Britain, adding to fears that the country is facing a Brexit brain drain, a research shows.

More than three million Europeans are currently living in Britain and around one million Britons living elsewhere in the EU. The issue of citizens’ rights is one of the three priorities in the Brexit talks which began last month, along with Britain's divorce bill and the question of Northern Ireland.

According to reports, Britain and the EU have failed to reach an agreement on the future rights of EU citizens in the UK and Britons in Europe after Brexit.

There is serious disagreement on the way in which permanent residency is granted to EU citizens in the UK.

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