No country is being targeted, UK says, as visa rules tighten

The British High Commission in Nairobi has refuted claims that the United Kingdom is ending a migration deal with Kenya, amid heightened anxiety over proposed changes to UK immigration laws that could affect thousands of Kenyan workers.

In a statement, the High Commission clarified that London is not targeting Kenya or any specific country in its new immigration proposals.

“There are no country-specific measures, and reports about the termination of a UK-Kenya migration deal are inaccurate. No such deal exists,” the High Commission said.

The clarification comes just a day after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled an immigration white paper proposing sweeping reforms aimed at overhauling the current system, which he described as “Britain’s open borders experiment.”

One of the key proposals is the termination of the care worker visa, a policy shift expected to impact foreign nationals from countries like Kenya, Nigeria, India, and the Philippines, who have been recruited to fill shortages in the UK’s health and social care sectors.

However, the High Commission insisted that the proposed reforms are still under review and will not take immediate effect.

“When the measures are introduced, they will tighten visa rules for students and individuals seeking to work in the UK, including raising skill requirements. We will share further details in due course,” the statement added.

The care worker visa was introduced in 2022 to address a severe shortage of care staff in the UK. Since then, it has enabled tens of thousands of workers, including hundreds of Kenyans, to secure employment in British hospitals and care homes.

Labour pact

Although the UK government denies the existence of a formal migration deal, Kenya and Britain signed a bilateral labour agreement in 2021 allowing Kenyan health professionals to work in the UK. Under this agreement, a memorandum of understanding was signed with the goal of sending 20,000 Kenyan nurses to UK hospitals.

The first batch of 19 nurses left for the UK in 2022, selected from a pool of 3,329 applicants. In 2023, a second cohort of 76 nurses followed and were placed in facilities across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

To align with the agreement, the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) introduced English language training for nurses. The programme now covers 30 per cent of KMTC’s 12,000 students, aiming to make them more internationally competitive.

Former Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, who presided over the implementation of the agreement, stated that only unemployed nurses would be allowed to take part in the programme.

“Kenya will only send nurses who have not yet found employment in the local labour market,” he said at the time.

Eligibility criteria for the programme include Kenyan citizenship, a recognised diploma or degree in nursing, registration by the Nursing Council of Kenya, a police clearance certificate, and successful completion of several tests, including the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), the Occupational English Test (OET), and the Computer-Based Test (CBT).

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Under the UK’s proposed changes, current care workers will be allowed to renew their visas temporarily, but the route will be fully closed to new applicants by 2028. The UK government argues that this will incentivise investment in domestic workforce training and help increase wages in the care sector.

The white paper also proposes to increase the immigration skills charge by 32 per cent, a fee paid by UK employers when hiring overseas skilled workers, and to reduce the post-study work period for international students from two years to 18 months.

It also seeks to require adult dependents to prove basic English skills, extend the naturalisation period from five to 10 years, and tighten the use of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which the UK says has blocked deportations.

The full details of the proposed immigration overhaul will be outlined in Parliament over the coming weeks.

For now, Kenyan migrant workers and prospective applicants remain in limbo, awaiting the final shape of policies that could redefine their future in the UK.