UK plans limiting foreign care workers’ dependants, as being done to students’ depandants
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Desire by the Conservative Party to retain power in the United Kingdom is propelling it to want to reduce the number of dependants that care workers from Nigeria and other non-European Union (EU) countries can bring to the country, following the same rule being applied to foreign students.
The main purpose is to bring down immigration numbers, a tetchy issue within and outside the party, particularly as the general election holding no later than January 2025 draws near.
Environment Secretary Steve Barclay confirmed to a British newspaper Home Secretary James Cleverly is mulling a ban on dependant numbers as an option to slash immigration figures.
Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has proposed foreign workers could be banned from bringing their family members to the UK or be allowed to come with just one relative.
The UK has already announced a curb on foreign students’ dependants from January 2024.
The policy, instituted under former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, will ban foreign students from bringing family members with them to the UK unless they are on postgraduate research courses.
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Action being taken on foreign care workers’ dependants
A similar policy may now apply to foreign care workers, with Barclay saying: “I absolutely support bringing the [immigration] numbers down. We clearly need to go further, faster,” per The PUNCH.
“We’re taking action, for example, on dependants, so around 150,000 student dependants where that route has been closed. That announcement has been made.
“One of the areas where I know the Home Secretary will want to look is dependants of those coming into the care sector.
“So, there are a range of options. The Home Secretary … it’s quite right to say we need to bring those numbers down.
“There’s action that we have already taken such as on students’ dependants, where a tighter approach is being applied, but clearly we need to go further and I absolutely support the Home Secretary in doing so.”
Most foreign care workers in the UK comprise people from Nigeria, India, and Zimbabwe, according to Skills for Care, a government-funded agency.
Since the Home Office added care workers to the shortage occupation list, 14 per cent of care workers in England are now from non-EU countries (excluding the UK) while 7 per cent are from the EU.