'Care homes crisis' in work permits

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Under the points-based system, it has become more difficult for workers from outside the European Union to obtain permission to work in Britain unless they have high levels of skills.

Many Filipinos working in care homes - particularly those employed as senior carers - have been told that their work permits will not be renewed, as their posts could be filled by EU nationals, said Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin in Shropshire.

He said that hundreds of Filipinos were expected to have to leave the country next month, causing a "skills shortage and staffing crisis" in care homes.

About 25,000 Filipinos are thought to be employed in British care homes, many of them arriving since 1998 to plug staff shortages in the sector.

Care homes frequently have problems recruiting British nationals to the jobs done by Filipinos because of low pay rates, and there have been complaints that workers from the new EU states in eastern Europe are not always as suited to the posts because many do not speak English as well.

"Filipinos are usually very hard-working, speak excellent English, are very caring, are well qualified, and integrate very well into local communities.

"Their contribution to the care sector and to the NHS is enormous. The Government have not thought through the consequences of this policy on care homes throughout the country - as the mass exodus of senior care workers begins."

Mr Pritchard said that the change threatened to cost the Philippines a large slice of the £200 million a year sent back to the country from expatriates working in Britain and questioned the logic of removing that source of income from a country which receives aid from Britain.

A spokeswoman for the Border and Immigration Agency said: "Decisions on work permit applications are made on a case-by-case basis, using all the knowledge we have available to us at the time of assessing the application. The Border and Immigration Agency has a legal obligation to ensure that the work permit criteria are applied correctly."