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Late into the evening, five men were busy in a shellfish processing facility in northwest Scotland, sorting live langoustines and packing them into polystyrene boxes to be trucked to France, Italy or Spain. At busy times of the year, Scot West Seafoods could employ twice as many staff at the facility, if only the company could recruit them, its operations manager said. “We know that we are in a faraway place,” said Xohan Dios, the manager reflecting on the location of Kyle of Lochalsh, a village nestled in a remote region of imposing hills and scenic lakes. “The only thing we need is people.” Because of the lack of workers, Scot West Seafoods has stopped processing prawns at the facility, in far northwest Scotland, which lies close to a bridge leading to the Isle of Skye. It has also considered moving its packing operations to Glasgow, a four-hour drive south, where workers would be easier to recruit. In Britain, as in many western countries, anti-immigration sentiment is on the rise. Reform U.K., the right-wing populist party led by Nigel Farage, has surged ahead of the governing Labour Party in opinion polls and has said it would deport 600,000 undocumented immigrants if it wins power. Alarmed by Reform’s advances, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a series of measures to curb the number of legal and illegal migrants arriving in Britain. Scotland’s population is rising overall, but in some regions, a labor shortage is crippling companies and leaving communities without essential workers, while rural schools are being forced to close as residents leave. The contradiction between the British government’s desire to cut overall immigration by hundreds of thousands of people a year, and the scarcity of workers in some rural areas, has created a dilemma for Scotland’s lawmakers. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
