A14 eZ re the washington post.thursday, february 20 , 2020
BY WILLIAM BOOTH
AND KARLA ADAMLONDON — The British govern-
ment announced Wednesday its
plan for a complete overhaul o f its
immigration system — closing its
borders to unskilled migrants and
instead allowing easier entry for
“the brightest and the best from
around the world.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel
called the immigration plan “a
historic moment for the whole
country,” as the government
pledged to transform the British
economy by starving its business-
es of low-wage workers from Eu-
rope and forcing companies to
adopt t echnology and a utomation
instead.
The government said that be-
ginning next year, it will reduce
the overall number o f immigrants
allowed into the country, honor-
ing what it sees as one of the main
mandates of the Brexit vote in
June 2016.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson,
who led the campaign for Brexit,
has called the new immigration
regime revolutionary. His govern-
ment formally outlined the new
plan Wednesday, confirming that
Britain will install a new “points-
based” system, which will take
back control of its borders and
end what it described as the coun-
try’s overreliance on low-skilled
workers.
These are workers, many from
Eastern Europe, who today enter
freely into Britain to toil in low-
wage, labor-intensive sectors
such as food processing, hospitali-
ty, construction, kitchen work and
caring for the elderly. They d o jobs
such as picking strawberries in
Sussex and cleaning hotel rooms
in Soho that many native-born
Brits won’t do for the wages paid.
In remarks Wednesday to the
BBC, Patel imagined that British
businesses might somehow lurethe 8.45 million “economically in-
active” British-born adults, ages
16 to 64, to take the place of
low-skilled foreigners who will be
denied entry.
“We want businesses to invest
in them,” s he said of the nonwork-ing native-born. “To invest in skill-
ing them up, training them.”
The government vowed to give
its top priority to migrants “with
greatest talents,” such as “scien-
tists, engineers, academics and
other highly-skilled workers.”Those wanting a work visa
must demonstrate that they speak
English and have a job offer from
a known employer with a guaran-
teed minimum salary of $33,200.
As the Guardian put it: “Self-
employed people need not apply
— spelling the end of Polish
plumbers or Romanian builders
coming on their own initiative.”
The Te legraph newspaper
wrote, “Huddled masses need not
apply.”
In several British cities, many
of the workers renovating homes,
driving trucks and cutting up
poultry are European migrants —
not scientists — many without
fluency in English.
Britain’s Home Office said the
new plan was designed to elimi-
nate “the distortion” caused by
“the freedom of movement,” one
of the four cherished pillars for
members of the European Union,
which allows citizens to live and
work anywhere in the 28-nation
bloc.
Britain officially left the Euro-
pean Union last month and is in a
“transition phase” until the year’send, while the two sides negotiate
their future relationship and at-
tempt to craft a trade deal.
Johnson will introduce legisla-
tion next month to begin its new
immigration system in January.
For travelers coming to Britain,
from the United States and else-
where, for short business trips or
tourism, little will change.
Some British businesses that
rely on low-wage imported labor
are calling the new policy a crisis
in the making. A union that repre-
sents low-skilled employees said
it was a disaster.
The government has shrugged.
“Employers will need to ad-
just,” the Home Office stated
bluntly. “We intend to create a
high wage, high-skill, high pro-
ductivity economy.”
“We need to shift the focus of
our economy away f rom a reliance
on cheap labor from Europe and
instead concentrate on invest-
ment in technology and automa-
tion,” the Home Office an-
nounced.
[email protected]
[email protected]Britain wants to close borders to unskilled immigrants
hannah Mckay/reuters
British Home Secretary Priti Patel called the new immigration
regime “a historic moment for the whole country.”E nglish-speaking
engineers, academics
preferred in new planBY ANTHONY FAIOLAThe long-awaited trial of the
Citgo Six — oil executives, includ-
ing five U.S. citizens, detained in
Venezuela on corruption charges
for more than two years — failed
to open as scheduled Wednesday,
leaving fearful family members
calling on the U.S. government to
do more to protect their impris-
oned fathers and husbands.
The six men were executives of
Houston-based Citgo Petroleum
Corp., an oil refiner formerly
controlled by the government of
President Nicolás Maduro. Con-
trol of the company changed last
year after the Trump administra-
tion authorized Juan Guaidó, the
opposition leader recognized as
Venezuela’s rightful head of state
by the United States and more
than 50 other nations, to name a
new board.
The six men were arrested
during a business trip to Caracas
in November 2017 and have since
been charged with money laun-
dering, embezzlement, racketeer-
ing and participating in orga-
nized crime. They deny all charg-
es against them; the Trump ad-
ministration has called for their
immediate release.
The case has emerged as a
major point of contention be-
tween the Maduro government
and the Trump administration.
U.S. officials say Maduro is a
usurper who has repressed, tor-
tured and killed his opponents.
They have called for his ouster.
In December, 25 months into
their detention, a Venezuelan
court scheduled their trial for
Wednesday. But lawyers and fam-
ily members said a necessary
transport order to bring the men
to court had not been issued byearly afternoon.
A ttorneys for the men have
been demanding their release on
several grounds, citing their in-
nocence but also the fact that
Venezuelan law does not permit
defendants to be held for more
than two years without trial. The
fragile health of at l east two of the
men has been cited in requests
for humanitarian release.
The Venezuelan government
has not provided any official no-
tice of the men’s current where-
abouts. But U.S. officials and fam-
ily members say they have re-
ceived information that the men
were moved from house arrest
this month to the Helicoide, the
notorious Caracas prison run by
the SEBIN, Maduro’s feared intel-
ligence police. The transfer oc-
curred Feb. 5, the day President
Trump received Guaidó at the
White House.
“The conclusion from the legal
point of view is that the Citgo Six
have been forcibly disappeared,”
said Jesus Loreto, attorney forexecutive To meu Vadell. “Not one
lawyer, not one family member,
has been able to have written or
verbal contact with them since
they were taken from house ar-
rest. This is a crime against hu-
manity.”
Ta rek William Saab, Venezue-
la’s attorney general, did not re-
spond to a request for comment.
Saab signaled this month that the
trial would start soon.
“Within 12 days there will be
an open trial against these peo-
ple, who committed crimes
against the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela,” Saab told reporters
in Caracas on Feb. 7. “We are not
talking about hippies, singers or
folklorists who came here to give
a concert in a square and were
detained. We are talking about
alleged criminals, corrupt embez-
zlers of the national heritage who
are being prosecuted for that.”
All six men — acting president
and chief executive José Ángel
Pereira and vice presidents
Vadell, Gustavo Cárdenas, JorgeTo ledo, Alirio Zambrano, José
Luis Zambrano — were born in
Venezuela. Five are naturalized
U.S. citizens; one is a U.S. perma-
nent resident.
Family members accuse the
Maduro government of wrongful-
ly arresting and imprisoning the
men. But they’ve also criticized
the Trump administration, say-
ing Washington has not made
their release a priority in its
Venezuela policy, which has been
focused on forcing Maduro from
office.
“If these were six Americans
from Kansas, this might be a
different story,” said Cristina
Vadell, daughter of To meu Vadell.
“I think there has been some
reluctance from the administra-
tion to get into this head-on.”
She said her family has repeat-
edly requested a meeting with
Trump, to no avail. Her frustra-
tions are shared by Maria Elena
Cárdenas, wife of Gustavo Cárde-
nas. She recently posted a video
of her disabled teenage sonpleading with Trump to bring his
father home.
“I can’t personally know what
they are doing because they have
never told me,” Cárdenas said.
“But if you ask me, they are not
doing enough.”
A State Department represen-
tative said liberating the men is a
“top priority.”
“The safety of Americans and
the freeing of prisoners is abso-
lutely a top priority for the State
Department, which is why we
have been actively engaged in the
case of the Citgo Six,” said the
official, who spoke on the condi-
tion of anonymity to discuss the
sensitive matter. “In the last two
weeks we have met with mem-
bers of one of the families who
were visiting Washington and
been in touch with two govern-
ments asking for their assis-
tance.”
[email protected]Mariana Zuñiga in caracas
contributed to this report.Venezuela delays trial of 6 Citgo executives — 5 Americans — held since 2017
Families say Washington
has done too little to help
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