Home Secretary Amber Rudd says the government has accepted the need for the agricultural industry to continue employing seasonal farm workers from the EU.
More than three million EU nationals living in the UK will need “documentation” once Britain completes a Brexit, Miss Rudd revealed earlier this week.
The Home Secretary told the House of Commons that some form of ID would have to be introduced. She said her department was working on an ideal way to introduce a seasonal work permit scheme for overseas agricultural workers coming to the UK.
It fuelled fresh speculation that they will either be required to have a ‘Green Card’ or hold a biometric residence permit similar to migrants from the rest of the world.
Amber Rudd said she was “aware that there is an expectation and concern” about EU citizens already in the UK.
She said: “There will be a need to have some sort of documentation but we are not going to set it out yet. We are going to do it in a phased approach to ensure that we use all the technology advantages that we are increasingly able to harness to ensure that all immigration is carefully handled.”
“We are aware how necessary it will be to have a seasonal scheme for agriculture in place and we are looking carefully at it.”
