London: Brussels has drawn up a plan that could force Britain to admit 12,000 workers from India despite soaring unemployment at home, the Daily Mail reported.
The order is part of an EU-wide plan to boost trade with India.
EU officials say that, in return for opening up the jobs market, countries such as Britain will be helped to land lucrative export deals.
But, of 40,000 workers who will be allowed to live and work in Europe, Britain has been told it must take 12,000, according to leaked EU documents.
This is far more than any other EU nation - and three times the number which will be permitted France, the newspaper said on Friday.
Even Germany, which has one of the world's largest economies, will admit only 8,000 workers.
The Indian migrants, who can live and work in Britain for six months, will be in addition to people given visas under Britain's supposedly strict immigration cap.
It comes at a time when British unemployment is close to a 17-year high, at 2.67 million.
A large number of the beneficiaries will be IT workers, who already arrive in large numbers from India.
The details emerged in a leaked copy of the EU/India Free Trade Agreement, which is due to be signed later this year.
The aim is to encourage greater export trade between the EU and India.
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