Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Foreign workers in the United Kingdom will need to wait 10 years, instead of five, to qualify for permanent residency, the Labour Government has announced.
The latest development comes as part of the Keir Starmer Government’s crackdown on illegal migration into Britain. From Digital IDs to deporting illegal migrants, the UK administration has taken several steps towards its agenda Migrants will have to prove they are contributing to society to earn the right to remain in the UK, the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said.
In her speech to the Labour conference on September 29, she outlined a series of new conditions migrants have to meet to qualify for indefinite leave to remain, which would then allow them access to certain welfare benefits, along with the ability to work in the UK and a route to citizenship Under the proposals, legal migrants will have to learn English to a high standard, have a clean criminal record and volunteer in their community to be granted permanent settlement status.
“Because the truth is, across this country, people feel like things are spinning out of control,” she said. She added, “When they hear of widespread illegal working, under-cutting British workers, they feel the system is rigged.”
The main theme of Labour’s conference is taking the fight to Reform UK, which is leading in UK-wide national opinion polls, according to BBC. She added that challenge was not just winning the next general election, but keeping the country together and fighting for “our belief in a greater Britain, not a littler England”. The rise in the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats and the scale of immigration to the UK in recent years were prominent themes in her speech.
A consultation on the proposals will be launched later this year, she said. Lawyers said the new requirements may discourage some people moving to Britain, and requiring people to volunteer would be hard to assess, according to Reuters.
Since Indians form one of the largest groups of migrants, workers and students in the United Kingdom, they are likely to suffer a significant impact from this move.
