UK To Restrict Nigerian Students From Bringing Families Over

The United Kingdom is all set to announce new restrictions that will restrict Nigerian students, alongside students of other nationalities, to bring their families over.

The ban, which is slated to announce this Thursday as per the SUN UK, will be imposed on all the masters' students and post-grads. However, PhD students won't be affected by this restriction.

As per the outlet, the official figures suggest that there are more than one million net migrations in the country. As a result, Tory MPs asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, to get a hold of the rocketing numbers.

Home Secretary of the United Kingdom, Suella Braverman, and her deputy Robert Jenrick who urged to increase the salary threshold for these students, had their request overruled by the Treasury.

Currently, the threshold is £26,000 while Home Office wanted the salary threshold for foreign workers to be £33,000.

Prime Minister Sunak's tenure began in October last year and as per the report, he is "expected to come out fighting on immigration – pointing out they are figures he inherited as they date back to the year ending December 2022 – two months after he became PM."

"There has been an explosion in the number of people coming to Britain piggybacking on their relative's student visa," the report added. "Students brought 135,788 family members to Britain last year – nine times more than in 2019."

Considering 2022 reports, Nigerian students brought over 60,923 relatives to the United Kingdom. "We have got to get a grip," a Tory MP told the outlet on Sunday.

Nigerian students in the United Kingdom pursue various levels of education including doctoral programs, undergraduate and postgraduate in disciplines like business, engineering, medicine, law, social sciences, and more.

These students get admission to universities through various private agencies that help with the process like the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). However, it is necessary for the students to meet specific requirements like speaking fluent English and having certain academic qualifications before getting admission to institutions.

Aside from students, the United Kingdom had put Nigeria on the red list to avoid hiring Nigerian doctors unless there is a government-to-government agreement.

The official statement by the UK was issued last month after World Health Organisation noted that the healthcare workforce is drastically reducing in Nigeria as the doctor-to-patient ratio is 1:10,000.

The president of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Dr. Victor Makanjuola shared that Nigeria is able to retain only 30% of its doctors on a yearly basis.

"If we retain 30 percent of 12,000, it's better than 30 percent of 4,000. And if we train about 12,000, 30 percent of that is far better than the current state of about 4,000," Makanjuola said, as per AllAfrica. "And with that, we think we can still support the system, not optimally but at least keep the system going."