UK Immigration News

Foreign nationals are using Zambia as a gateway to the United Kingdom and South Africa.

Zambia's Immigration Department deputy public relations officer Greenwell Lyempe said the department has noticed with concern that several nationals were using Zambia to get to the two countries.

Lin Homer has been appointed the new Director General of the UK's Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), Home Office Permanent Secretary John Gieve announced on June 6.Homer was selected following an open competition. She is expected to take up her post in August. Currently Homer is Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council where she has been responsible for 57,000 staff.

Mohammed Afzal Khan, who arrived in the UK in the 1970's as a bewildered 12-year-old who spoke no English, has become the first Asian lord mayor of the British city of Manchester.

Twenty percent of Manchester's 400,000 citizens are nonwhite. Now they have a role model in city hall. Khan agrees that his achievement could well inspire Britain's 2 million-plus individuals of south Asian origin, who often feel underrepresented in the upper echelons of British society.

The Sectors Based Scheme quota for 2004-05 will continue to operate beyond 31 May 2005, the day that the quota was due to end.As announced on 21 January 2005, the SBS pilot is currently the subject of a comprehensive review. Applications, in the meantime, are still being accepted. Ministers are considering the outcome of this review and an announcement about the future of the pilot will be made shortly.

The drive to manage illegal immigration will be one of the UK's priorities for its six-month presidency of the European Union, the country announced 26 May.

Charles Clarke, the UK's home secretary, outlined plans to sign agreements with Russia, Ukraine, Morocco and China to take back migrants who have entered the EU illegally. He said that in exchange for taking back migrants, the countries could look forward to "strong and stable" relations with the EU.

About 176,000 workers from the new EU member states have entered the UK to work since the EU expanded last May. This was 20 times more than expected; still, the UK's Immigration Minister Tony McNulty said there was little evidence that the new workers had a widespread impact on jobs or wages.

So-called Accession Eight (A8) migrants gain access to the UK's workforce via the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS). Malta and Cyprus also joined the EU last year but they are not regarded as A8 states.