UK Immigration News

The consultation period for Priti Patel’s much maligned ‘New Plan for UK Immigration’ closes today. The Home Secretary has faced heavy criticism over the plans, while the consultation process has been branded ‘a sham’. Plans to reform the UK’s asylum and refugee systems were first announced on 24 March.

 

Following virtual talks between UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and Indian premier, Narenda Modi, India has agreed to take back illegal immigrants in exchange for more UK visas for its young professionals to work in Britain. It’s understood that 18 – 30 year olds will be able to apply for two-year work and study visas.

 

A letter sent to Priti Patel, seen exclusively by The Independent, has urged the Home Secretary not to implement plans that the government has described as ‘the biggest overhaul of the UK’s asylum system in decades’. The letter claims that the recently unveiled ‘New Plan for UK Immigration’ will have ‘devastating’ repercussions on women fleeing gender-based violence.  

 

Priti Patel’s proposed ‘New Plan for UK Immigration’ has been branded ‘vague, cruel, unworkable and potentially unlawful’ by immigration and human rights groups. The plan is currently under consultation and welcoming feedback, but activists have described the government consultation as ‘a sham’ and a ‘thinly-veiled public relations exercise’.

 

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) has urged the UK Home Office to simplify ‘complicated and expensive legal routes to UK immigration’ in a new report. The call comes as Home Secretary, Priti Patel, presses ahead with her ‘New Plan on Immigration’, which seeks to restrict more existing routes to settlement in Britain.

 

A strategic advisor who formerly worked on Brexit negotiations claims that the launch of an exclusive UK visa for Hong Kong nationals could be ‘the making of post-Brexit Britain’. Johnny Luk told Al Jazeera that the UK has a ‘unique opportunity to demonstrate how it can lead on immigration policy’.   

Since the turn of the year, UK immigration has fundamentally shifted. For some it has changed in way that not many people would have predicted.