A UK-based tech company has apologised after placing a job advert where it said only Indian immigrants would be considered.
Avantao Technologies was hiring for a DevOps engineer at the company’s headquarters in Ilford, England.
But the advert – which was live on a popular recruitment site – made it clear applicants born in the UK were not welcome.
Application questions included several which were visa related, such as ‘are you seeking sponsorship for employment in the UK?’, ‘What is your native country?’ and ‘are you legally authorized to work in United Kingdom?’
The job was placed by Avantao, which also has two offices in Hyderabad and Bangalore, and one in New Jersey, USA.
Chitra Ranjeeth is the director of Avantao in Ilford.
The Ilford office is listed at a business centre address in the London town which is the home of many other unrelated firms.
Today the company put the advert down to a ‘mistake’ made by an employee, and claimed it was a ‘test’ to teach their staff about ‘do’s and don’ts’ and so no one had been hired.
Avantao Technologies has apologised after it put out a job advert where ‘only candidates who are immigrants from India will be considered
The Ilford office is listed at a business centre address in the London town which is the home of many other unrelated firms
They claimed they could not take the ad down because the person who posted it was on holiday.
A spokesperson for the firm insisted it followed all UK rules and the online advert was a mistake.
They told MailOnline: ‘We are very sorry to hear that this has occurred. The job was never intended, nor did we provide support from a certain country.
‘What we discovered was a test demonstration post that is being taught to our employees about do’s and don’ts.
‘Unfortunately, that has been published, and we are unable to retract it because it was a mistake made by the employee who posted it live and then departed on holiday.
Application questions included several visa related questions such as ‘are you seeking sponsorship for employment in the UK?’, ‘What is your native country?’ and ‘are you legally authorized to work in United Kingdom?’
‘Our organisation is subject to United Kingdom rules and regulations.
‘But a mistake is a mistake, and we have taken action against the individual. We haven’t hired anyone for this role because it’s a test.
‘However, we genuinely apologise.’
The job advert expired on March 24.