The United Kingdom will halt the recruitment of care workers from abroad this year, in a move expected to significantly impact countries such as Nigeria, which has been a major supplier of labour for the UK’s care sector.
Several countries — including the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and the United States — currently operate visa programmes that allow Nigerian nationals to work as caregivers, provided they meet requirements such as job offers, qualifications, and English language proficiency. These positions often offer a pathway to permanent residency and pay annual salaries ranging from around £14,000 to €64,000, depending on location and experience.
However, UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced on Sunday that Britain will terminate its overseas care worker recruitment scheme as part of a broader strategy to reduce migration. “It is time to end that care worker recruitment from abroad,” she told the BBC, noting that care providers must instead focus on hiring British nationals or renewing the visas of existing migrant workers.
The announcement precedes the Labour government’s upcoming immigration reform plan, due to be unveiled Monday. The package is expected to reduce migration by up to 50,000 low-skilled and care worker entries annually. The move comes amid growing political pressure to address rising migration figures, which peaked at a record 906,000 in the year ending June 2023 and stood at 728,000 in 2024.
Key components of the reform include raising the skill threshold for work visas to graduate-level roles, tightening the criteria for temporary shortage visas, and requiring employers to boost domestic training investment. Cooper emphasized that while there will be no fixed migration targets, the aim is a fundamental reset of the immigration system. “Setting numerical targets has undermined credibility in the past,” she said.
Universities will also face stricter rules for enrolling international students, with Cooper citing concerns over dropout rates and visa abuse.
The decision follows a sharp decline in Health and Care Worker visa applications — from 18,300 in August 2023 to just 1,700 in April 2024 — largely attributed to earlier policy changes that barred dependents and imposed stricter domestic recruitment requirements.
Under the new rules, care providers must recruit from within the UK, including a pool of more than 10,000 care workers whose sponsorships were recently cancelled. To boost local hiring, Cooper also promised a fair pay agreement to make the sector more attractive to British workers.
Reactions to the policy shift have been mixed. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp welcomed the decision but criticized it as insufficient, calling for a legally binding annual migration cap. Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat spokesperson Helen Morgan warned the reforms do little to address chronic staffing shortages in the care sector. “The government is tinkering around the edges yet failing to properly tackle the crisis in our social care,” she said.
Labour’s announcement has also been interpreted as a response to political pressure from Reform UK, which made significant gains in the recent local elections. Party leader Nigel Farage claimed the new policies were driven by his party’s rise, warning that Labour’s measures still fall short of addressing integration concerns.
