LONDON: Conservative management candidate Robert Jenrick has pledged to “severely prohibit visas” to individuals from India if it doesn’t settle for the return of round 1lakh unlawful migrants within the UK, if he turns into Tory chief and the subsequent PM.
Jenrick, one in all 4 remaining candidates within the race to interchange Rishi Sunak, has set out plans for a fivefold improve in deportations of individuals dwelling illegally within the UK.
In a press release, he pledged to finish international support and “put extreme restrictions on visas” for international locations refusing to cooperate with returns. The international locations he named within the firing line for accepting UK visas and never cooperating with returns are Vietnam and India.
He mentioned Indian nationals had been granted 2.5lakh visas in 2023 to return to the UK to work, go to and research. But an estimated 1lakh Indians dwell illegally within the UK and “returns stay caught within the a whole lot.”
He mentioned it was time to “play hardball with these international locations and refuse to challenge visas till they comply with take again their residents who’re dwelling illegally within the UK.”
In Could 2021, the UK and India signed a migration and mobility MoU which was meant to guarantee the return of unlawful Indian nationals to India. Over the course of 2023, simply 22,807 unlawful migrants had been eliminated, of which 15% (3,439) had been Indian. Jenrick says beneath his plan, whole removals will attain greater than 1lakh per 12 months.
Different international locations Jenrick singled out had been Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Ethiopia, which he mentioned weren’t accepting returns, regardless of receiving hundreds of thousands in UK support.
“The government should cease different international locations exploiting our generosity by imposing extreme visa restrictions and limiting international support to international locations that don’t take again their nationals dwelling right here illegally,” he mentioned.
The previous immigration minister has come prime within the two parliamentary hustings held thus far and is prone to make it to the ultimate poll of celebration members. House Workplace officers instructed TOI {that a} visa ban was not coverage of the present Labour-led govt.
Nevertheless, well being secretary Wes Streeting this week referred to as on NHS bosses to cease “nicking” medical doctors and nurses from different international locations and to coach British expertise as a substitute. Talking on the GB Information Chopper’s Political Podcast he mentioned the NHS and social care system was “over reliant” on abroad employees.
Indians make up the second largest nationality working within the NHS after Britons.
