Rishi Sunak has made a new proposal for healthcare visa holders
Sunak urged to limit legal migration as a winning policy for the election campaign. Ministers want to tighten the rules for the Health and Care Worker visa (healthcare visa) so poorly qualified applicants cannot bring dependants with them.
A new proposal for healthcare visa holders
Rishi Sunak has been urged to make a crackdown on legal migration a key plank of his plans to shake up policy.
The Home Office has put forward plans for foreign care workers with poor qualifications to be blocked from bringing family members to the UK.
Ministers want to tighten the rules for the Health and Care Worker visa, which allows migrants to move to the UK to work in social care and bring dependants with them.
There have been growing concerns inside the Home Office that the visa route is being abused, fears that can be revealed via leaked documents seen by The Telegraph.
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, and Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, want to act on soaring legal migration and have been urging Downing Street to do so.
But the Prime Minister has put more focus on tackling illegal migration in the small boat crisis, knowing that foreign workers can help deliver his promise to grow the economy.
Possible date for tighter rules
Home Office figures have earmarked November 2023, when new net migration statistics will be released, as the possible date for announcing tighter rules on legal migration.
Earlier in 2023 it emerged that annual net migration had hit 606,000, six times higher than David Cameron’s pledge to bring that figure below 100,000.
Home Office insiders predict the next net migration figure will drop a little, given fewer Ukrainian and Hong Kong refugees have been arriving, but it could still be around half a million.
Mr Sunak is being urged by his Home Office counterparts to make legal migration the next election dividing line with Labour after the Prime Minister delayed or diluted a string of net zero moves.
The Health and Care Worker Visa was introduced in August 2020 but more have been granted than was initially expected.
Internal government estimates predicted around 8,000 visas would be issued but instead, there have been more than 50,000, each person on average moving to the UK with another dependant.
The Prime Minister has previously introduced tougher rules for how many migrants can bring dependants such as relatives when they move.
Earlier in 2023, the Home Office announced all foreign students except those doing postgraduate research would be barred from bringing family members to the UK.
Doctors, nurses, and care professionals
Government figures involved in the proposals believe that a similar change for those on the Health and Care Worker visa would be justified.
The visa allows doctors, nurses, and adult social care professionals with the offer of a job from an approved employer to move to the UK.
Recipients of the visa can bring their partner and children with them as long as they meet certain criteria.
If the early-stage plans were implemented it would mean those with poor qualifications would be blocked from bringing anyone with them, affecting many, but not all, the applicants.
The plan is set to face criticism from the social care sector, which has long been blighted by worker shortages. Tougher rules could make it even harder to fill vacancies.
But leaked documents reveal that dozens of social care providers have had their licenses suspended for bringing in unqualified care workers.
In one of the papers seen by The Telegraph, Home Office officials expressed concerns that “since the addition of care workers to the health and care visa route, the route is more easily exploited and misuse by illegitimate sponsors than other visa routes”.
Since the addition of care workers onto the list of occupations where Britain has a shortage, the UK Visa and Immigration quango has investigated 261 adult social care providers.
This has led to the suspension of 109 sponsorship licenses, with 48 providers issued with advisory concerns and 39 having their licenses revoked entirely.
A round-table meeting to discuss the crisis was held in July, attended by officials from the Home Office, UKVI, the Department of Health and care bodies.
Delegates heard concerns that many of the new care workers were not fully trained in social care, potentially putting the aged people at risk.
There are increasing concerns about continuity of care for aged people because so many are suddenly losing their carer when a license is revoked.
A document summing up what was discussed at the round table said: “Home Office officials voiced strong concerns about the care visa route itself – and misuse by non-care entities.
“This is partly due to the fact that care workers and senior care workers are not required to have formal qualifications and require a lower English language level for employment in the UK, which widens the pool of individuals who are eligible for this visa route.”
A separate briefing paper revealed that a number of sponsors were removed from the register between June and August 2022 in what was called “Operation Rassant”.
“Whilst the Op Rassant investigation has now concluded, evidence which has emerged subsequently makes clear that the cases in the scope of the operation are by no means isolated incidents,” the document said.
“There have since been further sponsors, homes, and care agencies identified for failing in areas – either through omission or neglect – and similar issues of non-compliance have been found.”
Major concerns about continuity
Among the main areas of concern was that candidates were “unsuitable for the role, has no background in similar work and or had limited knowledge before coming to the UK about what their employment entails.
“There are major concerns about the continuity of care when providers have their licenses revoked,” it said. “This has huge implications on service users when care packages are not able to be fulfilled.”
Supporters of the plan argue a balance must be struck between supporting the industry and bringing down overall net migration.
Tory MPs have previously called for a similar rule change including the New Conservatives, a group of Tory MPs first elected after the Brexit referendum in 2016.
The group made tightening the Health and Care Worker visa rules one of its central policy requests when it launched back in May 2023.
On Sunday night a government spokesman said: “We strongly condemn offering Health and Care Worker visa holders employment under false pretenses.
“The Government does not tolerate illegal activity in the labour market and any accusations of illegal employment practices will be thoroughly looked into. Those found operating unlawfully may face prosecution and/or removal from the sponsorship register
Source credits Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/24/rishi-sunak-urged-to-limit-legal-migration-election-policy/
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For more about UK Immigration:https://gov.uk