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Curry
restaurants face an "unprecedented crisis" because of tough
new immigration laws, Epsom restaurant owner and British Curry Awards
founder Enam Ali says.
Mr Ali said restaurant owners
were struggling to fill thousands of vacancies for skilled curry
chefs and staff because changes to laws were forcing them to take on
unskilled EU workers rather than employees from the subcontinent.
While the changes were
threatening expansion plans for the £3.2billion industry, Mr Ali
said, at worst they could force some restaurants to close.
He also said most Europeans don't
have a clue about the spices used in good curry.
Mr Ali said curry restaurants
needed a special dispensation from the English language requirements
in the new points-based immigration system.
Editor's Comment : The
claim that most 'Europeans' don't have a clue about spices used in
good curry is rather unfair and patently untrue. Whilst acknowledging
the legitimate concerns of running an economically successful
"Indian" restaurant without access to staff from the
sub-continent, it does not help to claim some secret knowledge that
just does not exist.
Many
Asians do not understand spices in depth but equally every French
person is not a Cordon Bleu chef and not every Englishwoman can cook
a decent steak and kidney pudding.
There
is a considerable staffing problem in the industry with Government
rightly or wrongly trying to focus on certificated skills criteria on
one side and the restaurants needing to draw staff from their
traditional sources regardless of certification or speaking English.
If
we are to say a good curry can only be produced by someone from the
sub-continent then perhaps Gordon Ramsay should stop cooking French
food and David Thompson Thai food - and incidentally they do speak
French and Thai respectively.
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