UK doubled visa issuance last year, data confirms

LONDON - The authorities in the United Kingdom (UK) issued almost double the number of visas given to foreign health and care workers last year as the pressure against immigration piles up.

The data released on Thursday by the Home Office implies that Rishi Sunak's government might be up for a bigger challenge as the scale of immigration is visibly big. 

Government data shows that it awarded 337,240 work visas in 2023, 26% higher than in 2022. There was a  91% jump in health and care sector visas for the said period. Out of the 146,477 visas in that sector, over 60% were for workers in residential care homes and those providing care in people's own homes.

The challenge has become severe for the authorities as many workers awarded visas also brought dependants, with the health and care bracket accounting for 73% of the 279,131 visas given to the family members of workers- a figure which must have prompted the government to impose a ban on bringing dependents to the kingdom.

The statistics issued in November suggest that the annual net migration to the UK hit a record 745,000 in 2022.

It is to be highlighted that care workers were brought in from other countries through skilled worker visas from February 2022 to fill vacancies of over 150,000, or about 10% of the sector. The visas were issued as the demand from Britain's aging population increased.

Despite the issuance of visas, charities warn that heavy reliance on international staff increases the risk that they are brought into the country via gangs who exploit them by charging extra fees, overworking them, or making them work in other areas too.

The immigration challenge put so much pressure on the government that it introduced higher salary thresholds and curbs on care workers bringing in family members. Moreover, foreign postgraduate students on non-research courses have also been restricted from bringing family members to the UK.