London, March 8: Indian IT workers should be stopped from coming to the UK because they are stealing the jobs that should go to locals, it was argued today.

The slogan, “British jobs for British workers”, should be refined to “British IT jobs for British IT workers”. That appears to be the new battle cry of an organisation representing professionals in the communications industry.

According to the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), more than 35,000 IT workers from outside the European Union (EU) were granted work permits in 2008 despite the economic downturn.

APSCo chief executive Ann Swain said: “It seems crazy that with the economy in a severe downturn and thousands of IT workers having lost their jobs, we are still bringing three times as many foreign IT workers to the UK than during the dotcom boom, when we had a chronic skills shortage.”

APSCo, which represents professionals in such sectors as IT, engineering, accountancy, finance, banking, insurance, and marketing and sales, claims to be the UK’s leading professional recruitment industry body.

It says the influx of foreign workers has led to thousands of UK software engineers and systems analysts being laid off.

APSCo said data obtained from the home office under the freedom of information act showed 35,430 IT workers from outside the EU were granted work permits last year. IT workers from India took the lion’s share of the permits — 29,400. Next, but a long way behind, was the US (1,635), followed by China (510), Australia (475), South Africa (430), Pakistan (280), Canada (230), Malaysia (215), Japan (165) and Russia (165).

The figure is down 8 per cent from a high of 38,450 in 2007. During the dotcom boom in 2000, 12,726 permits were granted.

APSCo says the government should force companies to advertise vacancies in the UK before being allowed to transfer workers from overseas offices.

Swain added: “The economic slowdown and supposedly ‘tougher’ new points-based immigration system seem to have had very little effect on slowing the influx of foreign IT staff into the UK. A few years ago, this may have been overlooked, but with IT jobs much scarcer, this is now a contentious issue.”

She said 80 per cent of non-EU IT workers coming to the UK were on intra-company transfers. “Most of these foreign IT workers are software engineers and systems analysts. They are not coming here to answer phones on help desks, but are taking highly skilled and well-paid jobs.”

Her views were rejected by a spokesman for the UK Border Agency who said: “We introduced our flexible points-based system to allow the British government to manage the number of people coming to the UK from outside Europe, adjusting the bar to ensure that the right people and the people we need, can come. We want the UK to remain open to business and to be an attractive place for multinational businesses.”

APSCo did not issue figures on the number of British IT workers who have taken away the jobs of workers overseas, especially in India.