Travel News

By Amarachi Okeh

The United Kingdom is set to announce new restrictions that will most likely stop Nigerian students, other nationalities studying in the UK from bringing their families over.

According to an exclusive report by The Sun UK, this crack down will be annocued this week.

The crackdown will see all masters students and many other post grads banned from bringing family over.

However, the ban will not apply to PHD students, whose courses usually last between 3 and 5 years and are very highly skilled, the UK media House reported.

This follows the reports that net migration into the UK has skyrocketed to 1 million with Tory MPs asking the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, “to get a  grip on the rocketing numbers.”

To get a hold of the climbing numbers, UK ministers are said to be expected to announce the immigration clampdown on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Sun reports that “Rishi Sunak is expected to come out fighting on immigration – pointing out they are figures he inherited as they date back to the year ending December 2022 – two months after he became PM.

“There has been an explosion in the number of people coming to Britain piggybacking on their relative’s student visa.

“Students brought 135,788 family members to Britain last year – nine times more than in 2019.

“Last year, 59,053 Nigerian students brought over 60,923 relatives.”

“We have got to get a grip,” a Tory MP told The Sun on Sunday.

By Deborah Tolu-Kolawole

In search of better education and quality of life, a total of 128,770 Nigerian students enrolled in universities in the United Kingdom between 2015 to the end of 2022, analysis of the data obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Agency of the UK has revealed.

The number of Nigerian students has continued to grow over the years, as Nigerians try to escape the horrors of bad governance, and the disruption of academic activities by tertiary-institutions-based unions such as the Academic Staff Union of Universities, and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, among others.

In the 2015/2016 academic year, statistics indicate that 16,100 Nigerians were enrolled in UK universities.

During the 2016/2017 session, there was a sharp decline as only 12,655 Nigerians were enrolled, with experts blaming the recession back home in Nigeria for the drop.

In 2017/2018, the number of enrolled Nigerians reduced to 10,685 while it rose marginally to 10,810 during the 2018/2019 academic session.

A total of 13,020 students were enrolled during the 2019/2020 academic session while 21,305 were enrolled during the 2020/2021 session representing a 64 per cent increase.

The latest data available by HESA revealed that 44,195 students were enrolled for the 2021/2022 session, the highest so far since Nigeria’s independence in 1960.

A breakdown of the HESA statistics shows that in the top 10 international students list, Nigeria ranked third behind China and India.

 The PUNCH reports that foreign tertiary institutions and their respective countries have continued to benefit from the migration of Nigerian students to oversea institutions.

For instance, in 2021, Nigerian students and their dependants in the United Kingdom contributed an estimated £1.9bn to the economy of the UK, according to a report by SBM Intelligence.

An education activist and Programme Director, Reform Education Nigeria, Ayodamola Oluwatoyin, who had spoken to our correspondent earlier, listed poor government policies as one of the reasons Nigerians seek better opportunities abroad.

Meanwhile, The United Kingdom is set to announce new restrictions that will most likely stop Nigerian students and other nationalities studying in the UK from bringing their families over.

According to an exclusive report by The Sun UK, this crackdown will be announced this week.

The British government may soon limit the number of dependant visas for international students from Nigeria and other countries due to an increase in net migration.

According to the Financial Times (FT), the department of education, home office and treasury are set to finalise plans that prevent masters’ students on one year courses from bringing family members to the United Kingdom (UK).

This development may affect immigration numbers for countries like Nigeria which recorded the highest number of dependants (60,923) of sponsored study visa holders in 2022, increasing from 1,586 in 2019.

“Immigration has become one of the most explosive political issues. Ministers are now finalising plans to tackle one recent boom area for legal migration: the number of dependants who come to Britain with overseas master’s students, often from India and Nigeria,” the FT said.

It said students have been one of the main drivers of the post-coronavirus pandemic surge in migration, with almost 500,000 study visas issued by the UK authorities in 2022 — a rise of 81 percent compared with 2019.

One of the ministers told the British business news organisation that many of the master courses only last for nine months. “We don’t think this will have a big effect on our ability to attract global talent.”

Another minister confirmed the focus was on the dependants of master’s students, saying: “It’s clear we have to do something. We’re a long way from David Cameron’s promise to reduce annual net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’.”

The treasury, which normally favours higher migration, has accepted the political need to restrict the number of dependants of overseas students, while Gillian Keegan, education secretary, has also agreed to the plan.

Last September, the Telegraph, a national British daily broadsheet newspaper reported that the UK government was considering tightening visa rules on how many relatives migrants can bring into the country.

Suella Braverman, UK’s Home Secretary, said there were too many students coming into the UK and needed to be cut down. “There are structural pressures that mass and rapid migration poses to our country.”

In January, Braverman pushed for a visa change that would force foreign students out of the country if they don’t get a skilled job six months after graduating.

According to The Daily Mail, she committed to cut immigration and substantially reduce the number of unskilled foreign workers coming to Britain, from 239,000 to the tens of thousands.

The Federal Government and the International Organisation for Migration evacuated no fewer than 3,363 stranded Nigerians between January and May 2023.

This is according to figures obtained from the  IOM and the National Emergency Management.

Checks by our correspondent on Monday showed that 2,518 stranded Nigerians were evacuated from Sudan; 538 from Libya; 294 from the Niger Republic and 13 from Saudi Arabia in the last five months.

It was reported on May 17, that NEMA facilitated the return of 13 Nigerian students who fled from the Sudan war to Saudi Arabia.

On May 14 via the Twitter handle of NEMA, the agency announced that it evacuated 2,518 stranded Nigerians from war-torn Sudan.

On April 18 via the Twitter handle of IOM, the organisation evacuated 107 Nigerians stranded in Libya.

On April 11, FG in collaboration with the IOM, evacuated 152 Nigerians, who were stranded in Libya, to Nigeria.

On April 4, the FG and the IOM evacuated 144 stranded Nigerians from Niger Republic.

On March 28, the FG, in collaboration with the IOM evacuated 151 stranded Nigerians from Benghazi, Libya, as the government resumed its voluntary evacuation in Libya.

Within 24 hours, on March 29, they evacuated 128 more Nigerian migrants living illegally in Libya to Nigeria under the voluntary evacuation exercise.

On February 14 via the Twitter handle of NEMA, 150 distressed Nigerians were evacuated from Niamey, Niger Republic. The profile of the returnees indicated that 98 were male adults, male children 11, and two male infants. While 24 were female adults, 13 were female children with two female infants.

According to the United Nations, irregular migration poses multiple challenges to countries of origin, transit, and destination and migrants themselves.

Migrants in irregular situations are particularly vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation and abuse.

A retired Nigerian ambassador to Mexico, Ogbole Amedu-Ode, who recently spoke with The PUNCH, blamed unemployment and an inconducive political environment for high irregular migration.

Amedu-Ode said, “The unemployment rate for Nigeria stands at 33 per cent (2022 figure). Added to that, is an inconducive political atmosphere.

“This mix is responsible for Nigerians voting with their feet. Those who can afford it do so through legal or legitimate migration channels and those who cannot take the perilous trans-Sahara and trans-Mediterranean route.”

BY  Janice Kew, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa is facing a critical shortage of nurses as private hospitals are restricted from training more of the caregivers, according to the country’s largest private health-care network.

Although most South African hospitals have their own nursing colleges, only designated universities can issue professional nursing qualifications. This is despite the fact that the country has an estimated shortage of between 26,000 and 62,000 nurses, as well as a large proportion of health workers due to retire by 2030, Richard Friedland, chief executive officer of Netcare Ltd. said in an interview Monday.

“The tragedy is we’ve got tens of thousands of people applying to become nurses every year and in a country that is beset by such a skill shortage, by such rampant unemployment, it’s almost inexplicable that government isn’t opening the doors to allow the private sector to train,” he said.

Netcare has capacity to train more than 3,500 nurses a year, but has only been accredited to take about 10% of that, said Friedland. He said the company is collaborating with the government and other bodies to try and make better use of excess nursing college capacity. 

“It’s akin to the Eskom crisis,” he said, referring to the crippling power cuts South Africa is facing because Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., the state-owned company that supplies about 90% of the nation’s electricity, can’t meet demand from its dilapidated plants. “The private sector, through the Hospital Association of South Africa, is galvanized at the moment. We’re exploring all of our options in this regard and we’re not excluding taking legal action.”

Nursing shortages are not unique to South Africa and many countries are facing severe shortages of workers post-pandemic. 

Netcare earlier reported a rise in paid patient days in the six months through March compared with a year earlier, and said it expects full-year revenue growth of between 9% and 12%.

The government is set to ban most international students from bringing their family to the UK in a crackdown against immigration.

The news comes as new figures, set to be released on Thursday, are expected to show net migration has increased to 1 million people.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to reduce net migration when he entered Downing Street last year – but he’s likely to come out fighting on these figures.

He inherited them as they date back to to the year ending December 2022, two months after he became prime minister, The Sun reports.

The number of people coming to the UK using a relative’s student visa reached 135,788 last year, which is nine times more than in 2019.

This crackdown, expected to be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday, will see all masters students and many post graduates from bringing family over, but won’t apply to PhD students.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman reportedly also wanted to increase the salary threshold.

Currently foreign workers have to earn at least £26,000 to move here, but she wanted this upped to £33,000 – the average wage in Britain.

The proposal, also backed by Robert Jenrick, was overruled by the Treasury.

One Tory MP said: ‘We have got to get a grip.’

A passenger is taking Emirates to a small claims court in the UK over his “grubby” AU$3,240 (£1,728) business class seat.

Brodie Chapman, 20, claims that the airline mis-sold his ticket, after he boarded to find an “absolutely disgusting” plane and a seat that didn’t even recline. He is hoping to win back almost AU$5,000 (£2,667).

Mr Chapman runs a wholesale energy firm and travels with the airline up to 20 times a year. Last month he was travelling from Oslo to Dubai when he experienced what he called a “misrepresentation of the brand”.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Mr Chapman – who divides his time between Perth and the UK – said: “The seats were grubby, there were socks stuck down the side of my chair, it didn’t recline properly, one of the screens didn’t work, [and] there were stains on the seat.

“They advertise this fancy product – the 777 or the A380 – and this plane I got on was absolutely disgusting. It’s a plane they don’t advertise – it was around 23 years old. None of the services they advertise or offer were available”, he added.

Mr Chapman claims that the airline’s website only advertises new aircraft interiors, such as those on the A380 or the new 777, so he has effectively been mis-sold a product. It is understood that the aircraft he travelled on was one of the older 777 fleet.

Emirates’ customer services team offered Mr Chapman 20,000 Skyward Miles as compensation, reportedly telling him that they “do specify on our website that products and services may vary on actual flights depending on routes and aircraft configuration”. In addition, “operational requirements may cause last minute changes to the aircraft used on scheduled flights”.

Mr Chapman was not satisfied with this repsonse, making the decision to take the airline to small claims court. “I pay more money to fly with Emirates than other carriers because they are meant to offer more luxury and comfort”, he said.

“But if the product they are advertising bears no relation to what you are actually receiving, I don’t think it’s really fair”.

The Independent has contacted Emirates for comment.

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Story by Helen Wilson-Beevers 

The world’s most expensive passports have been revealed.

Australia tops the list of countries charging the most, with an adult passport costing citizens £192.

The list has been published by insurance company William Russell based on data from the Global Passport Fees 2023 list, and ranks the 38 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Mexico is the second most expensive country, with citizens charged £142 for a passport.

Meanwhile, Switzerland is in third place with passports costing £117 per adult, while an Italian passport is fourth on the list at a cost of £113.

The US comes in fifth costing £109, closely followed by New Zealand (£107), a Chile (£106) and Canada (£104).

Also in the top 10 but coming in under the £100 mark is Japan at a cost of £96 and a passport for citizens in Turkey, which is priced at £92.

The UK shares 12th place with Greece, as both countries charge citizens £84 for an adult passport. Meanwhile, a passport in Luxembourg costs far less at £50 and a Swedish passport is even cheaper at £38.

In 36th place sits Spain, where citizens are charged £28 for a passport.

Czech Republic is the least expensive country on the 38-strong list as a passport there costs only £23.

This research also includes the varying cost of tourist, student, and work visas in different countries.

Australia is also listed as the most expensive country for student visa fees, with an average charge of £375.

Meanwhile, the US takes top place for the most expensive tourist visa fees, at £107 on average. Finally, it costs the most to get a work visa in Columbia, where you can expect to pay £246.

The world’s 20 most expensive passports

1. Australia
2. Mexico
3. Switzerland
4. Italy
5. United States
6. New Zealand
7. Chile
8. Canada
9. Japan
10. Turkey
11. France
12. Greece
13. United Kingdom
14. Denmark
15. Israel
16. Austria
17. Ireland
18. Netherlands
19. Portugal
20. Belgium

By Deborah Tolu-Kolawole

An analysis of visas the United Kingdom issued to Nigerians in 2022 has revealed that more visas were granted to dependants than students.

Though the figure of visas issued from June 2022 to April 2023 would be out on Thursday, the UK, however, enacted a law that banned migrating students of some countries, including Nigeria, from bringing their family members to the country.

Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency in the UK revealed that 44,195 study visas were issued to Nigerians for the 2021/2022 academic session.

However, this is lower than the number of dependants’ visas issued to family members, as the data accessed by our correspondent on Tuesday suggested that 60,923 dependants migrated to the UK during the period under review.

According to the Daily Mail, the home office has suggested that the growth in study-related visas granted to dependants could be because a greater number of older students are coming to Britain.

The PUNCH had reported that Nigeria had been undergoing a migration wave popularly referred to as Japa.

The UK, Canada, and the United States were said to be among the popular choices of destinations.

In the 2020-21 academic year, 21,305 Nigerian students were enrolled at UK universities. This represents an almost 64% increase from the 2019-20 figure.

Though not yet released, the figure for the 2022-23 academic year might be even higher, anecdotal evidence suggests.

As of September 2021, only two other countries, China and India, were sending more students to the UK than Nigeria.

Enrolments from Nigeria spiked from 12,820 in 2016-17 to 21,305 in 2020-21 to 44,195 in 2021/2022.

Among all nationalities, Nigerians represented the largest relative increase in sponsored study visa grants, which reached a record high of 65,929, a nearly 700% increase from 2019 and a 222.8% increase compared to the same period in 2021.

(Bloomberg) -- Rishi Sunak’s government said it will ban international students from bringing their families to the UK, ahead of data expected to show net migration has doubled since before Britain left the European Union. 

The rules will take effect for students arriving from January 2024, unless they are on postgraduate research courses. The government said 136,000 student dependents came in 2022, up from 16,000 in 2019 — though that number includes the families of undergraduate and postgraduate students.

The Office for National Statistics is poised to publish new figures Thursday expected to show net migration rose to a record last year. That’s a political problem for Sunak, who is under pressure to deliver on a long-standing Conservative Party promise to bring down numbers — a central argument among supporters of Britain’s exit from the European Union.

“The government committed to bringing net migration down in the 2019 manifesto and remains committed to doing so,” Home Secretary Suella Braverman said in a statement. “But immigration is dynamic, and we must constantly iterate our approach to take account of changing migrant flows and respond to evidence of abuse or unintended consequences.”

While migration from the continent has gone into reverse with freedom-of-movement rules ending in 2021, arrivals from elsewhere are soaring. Braverman lashed out at her own government’s performance in a speech last week widely seen as an attempt to bolster her own leadership credentials.