The UK government has announced a u-turn on a plan forcing firms to draw up lists of foreign workers.
"This is not going to happen," defence secretary Michael Fallon told BBC on Sunday (9 October).
He added that firms could be asked "simply to report their numbers".
The data would be used to assess the labour market and encourage companies to hire British workers.
"What I can absolutely rule out is that we will not be asking companies to list or publish or name or id...
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Eszter Zalan is a Hungarian journalist who worked for Brussels-based news portal EUobserver specialising in European politics, focusing on populism and Brexit.