Post by Ibadan Watch (@Ibadanwatch)
Badenoch Says Indefinite Stay in the UK Should Not Be an Option for Immigrants.
The leader of the UK Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has said that immigrants, including Nigerians, “who come to Britain on temporary work visas should not automatically be able to stay forever.”
Badenoch, in her letter to the UK Home Secretary dated June 13, pushed back against the Labour Party government's move to review stringent immigration laws, including extending the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) to 10 years.
The Tory leader kicked against the LP move to exempt about 2 million immigrants from the 10-year requirement to obtain ILR in the UK.
Badenoch said, “We supported the proposals and had tabled similar proposals before Parliament some months earlier. We are concerned to read reports today that, following pressure from Labour MPs anticipating a new direction from an incoming Prime Minister, you are now considering u-turning on previous commitments and exempting approximately two million immigrants who entered the country on work visas from 2021 to today from the changes.”
She argued that the move “is a grave mistake. As Conservatives learned to our cost, five years is too short a time to obtain the indefinite right to remain in the UK. Many of these immigrants are working in low-wage, low-skilled jobs which could be done by some of the 9 million economically inactive British citizens.”
According to the Tory leader, individuals who are not making a significant economic contribution over 10 years should not be allowed to stay indefinitely. Those not working, or working in low-paid jobs, should be required to go home at the end of their temporary work visa.
She added, “Receiving ILR currently carries full entitlement to receive benefits. Even if this were restricted for an additional qualification period as some have called for, as things stand the migrants concerned would become eligible for British citizenship a year after receiving ILR, and it would be very difficult to restrict benefits for citizens.”
Badenoch further argued that “there is currently no provision in the Immigration and Asylum Bill or existing powers to vary the welfare entitlements of people with ILR. A u-turn on ILR would unleash huge increases in benefits claims by recent arrivals which hard-pressed taxpayers cannot afford to fund.”
“The government is perfectly entitled to decide at any time the rules on indefinite rights of settlement, including in relation to those here already. No one who has come here on a temporary work visa should have the automatic right to stay forever, and changing the rules to extend the qualification period and add conditions for new applications does not constitute a retrospective change,” she said.
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