Revision of the Government Visa Sponsorship Licence Regime
The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid MP, plans to strip organisations such as CAGE of their right to sponsor migrant workers coming into the UK.
Delivering a speech entitled ‘Confronting Extremism Together’ on Friday 19 July, the Home Secretary rallied against those organisations that he believes ‘reject our shared values’ and called for ‘honest national conversation’ about extremism and how we can challenge anti-immigration rhetoric. The revision of the ‘Visa Sponsorship Licence’ regime will ensure that organisations who are deemed as being non-conducive to the public good will not be able to sponsor migrants to work in the UK.
Javid said: “I will continue to call out extremism wherever I see it. We all have a role to play in stopping any normalisation or legitimisation of these views, and I will act against those who seek to divide us wherever I can.
“So, I’m pleased that the guidance for sponsoring migrant workers has been amended as this will allow us to refuse or revoke a sponsor licence where an organisation behaves in a way that’s inconsistent with British values, or that’s detrimental to the public good.
“One of the most prominent organisations that rejects our shared values is called CAGE and I plan to revoke CAGE’s licence on this basis, subject to representations.”
Counter Terrorism Policing’s National Prevent Coordinator, Chief Superintendent Nik Adams said: “For years Counter Terrorism Policing’s guiding principle has been that ‘Communities defeat terrorism’, but that premise only works if our communities remain tolerant, cohesive and undivided.
“We therefore all have a responsibility to call out intolerance where we see it, and to encourage a public debate about extremism and immigration that helps bring us together, not tear us apart.
“Organisations which hold outright extremist views and motives, or sympathies towards extremists, cause significant harm to our country and our communities, and we unequivocally support the government’s plan to prevent anyone with those views being able to enter and stay in our country.”