London: Ruling out a blanket amnesty to over 4 lakh illegal immigrants, Britain has said it will deal with the issue on case by case basis while it sought cooperation from Indian community to make the controversial new points-based immigration system "fair and stable".

"Over 1,000 case workers are currently engaged in making decisions on case by case," Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said at a seminar on immigration organised by the Ethnic Minority Citizens Forum here last night.

Faced with a barrage of complaints about the "disastrous" impact of the new immigration system on Indian restaurants in the UK and the accute shortage of low-skilled workers in the curry houses, the minister said the current visa system needed an overhauling as it was "clumsy, outdated and wretched."

He sought cooperation from the Chinese and Indian communities to make the new points-based immigration system "fair and stable". At the moment there were 80 different ways in which immigrants could come to the UK. "We want to make the immigration system simpler, fair and stable," Byrne, who recently took a cross-party delegation of Asian community leaders to India, said.

The points-based system will allow non-European migrants in the country only if they can prove that there is shortage of their skills in the UK and has been criticised as discriminatory. Byrne said he would publish a blueprint of the new immigration system in a month s time. Besides, the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent committee, will publish a list showing occupational shortages. The minister, however, rejected a proposal for a cap on immigration.

Source : PTI