The British government is set to remove the right of some international students to bring family members into the country. The move is part of the efforts to bring down migration, a long-running issue in the country.
The British interior ministry announced on Tuesday that it was removing the right of some international students to bring their family members into the country in an effort to reduce legal migration. The new measures will target postgraduate students with the exception of those in research programs, and the ministry said this step would cut down migration “substantially” and prevent people from using student visas as a backdoor route to finding work in the United Kingdom.
“We have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of student dependents being brought into the country with visas,” said interior minister Suella Braverman in a statement. “This is the fair thing to do to allow us to better protect our public services while supporting the economy by allowing the students who contribute the most to keep coming here.”
The ministry also said the new measures would also remove the ability for international students to switch out the student route to work routes before completing their studies. The ministry added that student visas made up the largest portion of migration into the UK, with 486,000 visas issued last year alone. The new rules will take effect in January next year.
Current rules allow postgraduate students studying courses that last nine months or more to bring their partners or family members to the UK. However, the government said the number of dependents has increased eightfold since 2019.
Meanwhile, the government also announced that it was easing visa restrictions for workers in the fishing industry in an effort to address a labor shortage in the sector which would make it more affordable and easier for overseas applicants to obtain a visa. The industry was seen as a key supporter of the UK’s departure from the European Union, but many have also said that Brexit left them worse off, citing fewer overseas workers and more red tape on exports.
The government said fishermen, skippers, and skilled deckhands would be included in the list of occupations that are experiencing a shortage of workers.
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