Two weeks after Britain's King Charles gave his assent to legislation central to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's move to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, Mr Sunak posted a video on X highlighting some of the steps he has taken to reduce migration.
The UK had also barred foreign students from bringing their family members to the country, after new rules kicked in on January 1 this year. However, postgraduate research and government-funded scholarship students were exempted from the new changes.
The 15-second video showed text on a sheet of paper mentioning how foreign students bring their families to the UK. Then a hand, presumably Mr Sunak's, stamped the sheet with red ink that stated in capital letters, "STOPPED".
More sheets of paper are seen in the video. Each had these text: Foreign master's students bringing family members. STOPPED. Overseas care workers bringing family dependants. STOPPED. Immigration undercutting British workers. STOPPED
"We've taken action to reduce migration. Student dependant applications are now down by 80 per cent," Mr Sunak said in the post.
In May 2023, the UK government had announced a new immigration crackdown targeted at overseas students, including Indians, and their visa right to bring dependent family members to the country while enrolled at a British institution.
We've taken action to reduce migration.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) May 15, 2024
Student dependant applications are now down by 80%. pic.twitter.com/x5dWiUK1F4
The UK government had said the new package of measures was necessary after it emerged that around 136,000 visas were granted to dependents of sponsored students in the year ending December 2022 - a more than eight-fold increase from 16,000 in 2019.
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