UK Immigration News

A campaign website set up by the Home Office has been described as ‘deceiving’ and ‘misleading’ by the Immigration Advice Service (IAS). Migrantsonthemove.org, which was launched by the Home Office as an unattributed organisation named ‘On The Move’, claims to offer migrants in transit ‘free, reliable and important information’. 

 

The UK government’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) department has shared the tax details of nearly 500,000 migrants with UK immigration authorities at the Home Office, according to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by the Migrants’ Right Network (MRN).

 

The Labour Party has urged the Conservative government to relax UK immigration rules amid a growing shortage of lorry drivers. The Home Office is under increasing pressure to ease UK immigration restrictions as haulage industry leaders warn that the driver shortage is ‘getting worse’. 

 

British security officials claim that a UK visa scheme designed for nationals of Hong Kong is being exploited by Chinese spies. The British National (Overseas) visa scheme was launched on 31 January 2021 exclusively for Hong Kong nationals affected by new Chinese security laws imposed on the Special Administrative Region in 2020.

 

A coalition of UK news organisations has sent a letter to UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, calling for special UK visas to be issued to Afghan staff under threat from the Taliban, according to a report published by ANI News. It’s understood that the letter was jointly sent by 20 prominent news outlets.

 

The number of UK certificates of sponsorship (CoS) issued to migrant health and social care workers hit a record high in the first quarter of 2021, according to new figures. The data, released by the Home Office, shows that 11,171 CoS were issued in the first quarter of the year, representing a sharp rise compared to figures in 2018 when just 3,370 were issued.