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Time of India
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
UK Net Migration: UK Sees Dramatic Drop in Net Migration Amid Visa Restrictions, ET TravelWorld
Advt Advt Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals Subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights & analysis. Download ETTravelWorld App Get Realtime updates Save your favourite articles Scan to download App Fewer work and study visas contributed to a near-halving in net migration into the UK - the number of people moving to the UK minus the number of those moving abroad - in 2024, official figures showed Office for National Statistics said the figure stood at an estimated 431,000 in the year, down 49.9 per cent from 860,000 a year earlier. That's the biggest percentage decline since the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and the largest numerical drop for any 12-month has relied on people coming into the country legally to contribute to economic growth, certainly in the decades after World War II, when millions arrived to help rebuild the country. And for years, it wasn't much of a political issue and on the periphery of it has become a politically toxic issue over the past 20 years or so, and played a key role in the Brexit vote of 2016, when Britain voted to leave the European Union. Membership of the EU comes with the obligation to offer free movement to all citizens of the 27-country immigration figures have gone up, not down, anti-immigration party Reform UK won big in recent local elections and is ahead in many opinion polls. Its argument is that too-high immigration is impacting on public services, housing and societal cohesion as a figures released Thursday do not include those arriving in the UK illegally, many in flimsy, small boats across the English Channel. Though that number is far lower - some 37,000 people crossed the English Channel on small boats last year - it's amplified the heat surrounding the debate.A more detailed look at Thursday's figures shows that the biggest contributor to the fall was a sharp decline in immigration, with the number of people coming into the UK below 1 million for the first time in around three years. However, the statistics agency also found that emigration swelled back to 2017 number of arrivals in the UK surged from 2022 onward, driven by many factors, including the more than 200,000 people fleeing Russia's war in Ukraine and more than 150,000 from Hong Kong on special overseas period covered by the latest estimates follows the introduction in early 2024 by the then Conservative government of restrictions on people eligible to travel to the UK on work or study visas. Though the Conservatives, now the main opposition party, have sought to claim credit for the decline, one of the main reasons they were swept from power after 14 years was the increase in net migration levels to record August, weeks after the Labour government took office, the country was convulsed by anti-immigration riots in which mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers were Prime Minister Keir Starmer is seeking to get net migration levels down further and earlier this month set out a series of measures aimed at reducing further the number of people moving long term to the UKStarmer said the country risks becoming an "island of strangers" without better integration, and said he wanted net migration to have fallen "significantly" by the next general election, but without giving a specific plan includes reforming work and study visas and requiring a higher level of English across all immigration routes. Experts think that could reduce the number by a further 100,000 a year.
Time of India
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
UK's 2024 net migration halves as study & work visas dry up
Live Events You Might Also Like: UK may set up migrant 'return hubs' in other countries for rejected asylum seekers You Might Also Like: UK net migration dips sharply in 2024 You Might Also Like: Historic fall in UK migration can't come fast enough for Starmer Fewer work and study visas contributed to a near-halving in net migration into the UK - the number of people moving to the UK minus the number of those moving abroad - in 2024, official figures showed Office for National Statistics said the figure stood at an estimated 431,000 in the year, down 49.9% from 860,000 a year earlier. That's the biggest percentage decline since the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, and the largest numerical drop for any 12-month has relied on people coming into the country legally to contribute to economic growth, certainly in the decades after World War II, when millions arrived to help rebuild the country. And for years, it wasn't much of a political issue and on the periphery of it has become a politically toxic issue over the past 20 years or so, and played a key role in the Brexit vote of 2016, when Britain voted to leave the European Union . Membership of the EU comes with the obligation to offer free movement to all citizens of the 27-country bloc.(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)But immigration figures have gone up, not down, anti-immigration party Reform UK won big in recent local elections and is ahead in many opinion polls. Its argument is that too-high immigration is impacting on public services, housing and societal cohesion as a figures released Thursday do not include those arriving in the UK by unauthorized means to seek asylum, many in flimsy, small boats across the English Channel. Though that number is far lower - some 37,000 people crossed the English Channel on small boats last year - it's amplified the heat surrounding the debate.A more detailed look at Thursday's figures shows that the biggest contributor to the fall was a sharp decline in immigration, with the number of people coming into the UK below 1 million for the first time in around three years. However, the statistics agency also found that emigration swelled back to 2017 number of arrivals in the UK surged from 2022 onward, driven by many factors, including the more than 200,000 people fleeing Russia's war in Ukraine and more than 150,000 from Hong Kong on special overseas period covered by the latest estimates follows the introduction in early 2024 by the then Conservative government of restrictions on people eligible to travel to the UK on work or study visas. Though the Conservatives, now the main opposition party, have sought to claim credit for the decline, one of the main reasons they were swept from power after 14 years was the increase in net migration levels to record August, weeks after the Labour government took office, the country was convulsed by anti-immigration riots in which mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers were Prime Minister Keir Starmer is seeking to get net migration levels down further and earlier this month set out a series of measures aimed at reducing further the number of people moving long term to the said the country risks becoming an "island of strangers" without better integration, and said he wanted net migration to have fallen "significantly" by the next general election, but without giving a specific plan includes reforming work and study visas and requiring a higher level of English across all immigration routes. Experts think that could reduce the number by a further 100,000 a year.
BBC News
10-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Animal medicine NI: Concern over lack of agreement post-Brexit
A House of Lords committee has written to the government amid continuing concern about the supply of veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland Northern Ireland scrutiny committee says it has "further questions" that have not been addressed in human medicines are covered by the Windsor Framework, animal medicines are instead subject to an extended grace period that expires at the end of this British Veterinary Association (BVA) has warned that a failure to reach an agreement could have "potentially devastating consequences". The letter to Thomas Symonds, the minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations, asks for "urgent clarity" on matters including what adjustments are being made to ensure supply of veterinary medicines and what the government's current assessment is of products at risk of discontinuation. The BVA has said it does not believe agreement will be achieved within the remaining grace president Elizabeth Mullineaux said: "A veterinary agreement with the EU could have an incredibly positive impact on so many different areas of concern, but in particular, could finally lead to a permanent resolution to the long-standing question of future access to vital veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland."Without a solution, there are serious implications not only for animal health and welfare, but also for public health."The BVA has proposed a series of short-term solutions and mitigations while negotiations include re-routing supply through the Republic of Ireland, creating exceptions for medicines that were aligned with regulation pre-Brexit and developing a special import certificate to allow the import of medicines from outside the European Economic Northern Ireland scrutiny committee was appointed in January 2025, after the dissolution of the former Windsor Framework Sub-Committee at the end of the last examines the Windsor Framework, complementing the work of the Democratic Scrutiny Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
