Labour row as curry houses face staff ban

A ban on recruiting kitchen staff from Bangladesh and Pakistan will force curry restaurants to close, experts warned today.

The Home Office announced it was scrapping a scheme which grants 9,000 work permits a year to unskilled restaurant and hotel staff.

Ministers claimed it was no longer needed because of the supply of cheap labour from new EU member states such as Poland and the Czech Republic.

But restaurateurs said that eastern Europeans were unable to hold down jobs in their industry because the language of the kitchens is Bangladeshi.

Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, called the scrapping of the scheme "scandalous" and said: "Indian restaurants not only provide pleasure to

2.5 million curry customers every week but also make a major contribution to the UK economy.

"Yet their future is under threat as they cannot fill some 7,000 vacancies among kitchen porters and other staff. They need Bengali speakers as that is the language of the kitchen."