With ASKAR SHEIBANI

CEO, Comtek Network Systems UK Ltd and chair, DBF

North Wales' businesses are facing urgent labour shortages. Our food manufacturers cannot produce enough food. Our haulage companies cannot deliver food. Manufacturers cannot manufacture enough goods to export due to massive delays in components supply. Farmers cannot pick their products timely to supply their customers.

A huge amount of fresh food is being destroyed. The shelves in our supermarkets are half empty. International customers are fed up with waiting for their orders to be delivered, so ditching UK businesses and buying from our competitors in other countries.

The business communities throughout the UK are frustrated and angry.

We have been raising our voices for a few months. We have been warning the government to do something to save our businesses and economy.

Unfortunately, the government has been totally deaf to our demands. Sadly, most of our politicians never had a job outside of politics, so do not understand the significance of the crisis facing the businesses right now.

They are so naive they think you can pick up and employ someone from the street, train them and pay them a very big salary to be a truck driver. This huge shortage of labour will lead to a radical decrease in goods, hence impacting the poorest in our society.

Nearly two million EU workers have left the UK, creating a big gap to fill. The government never envisaged the negative economic impact of this labour shortage gap. They could have planned it better, giving enough time for our training organisations, colleges and universities working together to deliver the skilled workers we now need to fill the gap.

The government needs to wake up and get real. They need to ditch their political dogma and be pragmatic. They should issue temporary work visas to Europeans to come and support our businesses.

We have thousands of asylum seekers incarcerated in detention centres in the most inhumane conditions, costing the taxpayers millions of pounds.

The vast majority of these are well educated, decent young people. They have travelled thousands of miles, risking their lives to come to the UK to work.

Surely, it makes common sense while they are waiting for their case to be decided to let them work, contribute to our economy, and pay tax.

It is beyond any logic how remote some of our politicians are. It's as if they are living on a different planet.

There is a severe deficit of common sense amongst the politicians running the country. It looks like they are getting pleasure out of putting these asylum seekers, who love the UK and have a strong desire to work, in prison-like conditions.

It amazes me to see the government finds millions of pounds to waste by incarcerating these people and not allowing them to work.

The real sadness is that all the opposition parties are keeping very silent and demonstrating no courage or leadership by challenging the government.

They are scared and worried that voters may think they are soft on immigration.

By providing these asylum seekers and some EU workers, after security checks, with work permits the country will save money and they will help to create wealth and prosperity.

The business community needs urgent bold, common-sense action from our government and the politicians before it is too late.