Immigration news

The deadline to extend a controversial executive order suspending several temporary US work visas is fast approaching for President Trump. The outgoing US President, who ordered the temporary suspension of US work visas amid the coronavirus, is under pressure from certain anti-immigration groups to extend the ban into 2021.

 

A New Brexit trade deal has been agreed between the UK and the EU.

The UK government has announced that 30,000 seasonal worker visas will be made available for 2021, enabling EU and non-EU workers to enter Britain to help pick and pack fruit and vegetables. The number will treble the amount of seasonal worker visas made available in 2020.

 

The UK seasonal worker visa program was initially launched as a pilot in 2019, and has now been extended by a further 12 months. The extension will apply to EU and non-EU workers once freedom of movement from the European mainland ends on 1 January 2021.

The US has imposed yet more visa restrictions on Chinese officials over human rights abuses as the government continues its punitive assault on Beijing as Trump’s time as President nears its end. China has responded with reciprocal countermeasures against American officials following Washington’s latest US visa bans.

 

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the enhanced restrictions against Chinese officials accused of repressing religious and ethnic minority groups, dissidents, journalists and peaceful protesters.

Under a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package passed by US Congress recently, mixed-status immigrants families will be eligible for stimulus checks.

A new report by MPs has warned that food prices could rise unless the government changes its approach to its post-Brexit UK immigration system. According to an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) inquiry into labour in the food supply chain ‘getting food businesses to move away from migrant workers will take time.’

 

The cross-party group of MPs has instead suggested a more transitional shift away from migrant labour rather than a hard stop when freedom of movement rights between Europe and the UK officially end on 1 January, 2021.