Travel News

Marc Miller, Canada’s immigration minister has said that effective March 7, 2025, the country will allow qualified foreign workers who register for apprenticeships relating to construction work, to study without a permit.

According to Miller, immigration spaces has been reserved for 6000 undocumented construction workers already in Canada, and 14,000 foreign construction workers outside Canada will be admitted.

It is unclear if they will be admitted under permanent pathways, temporary pathways, or both.

This is a major change that supports Canada’s construction industry to address the chronic labour shortage in that sector.

Previously, foreign nationals were required to obtain study permits to enrol in apprenticeships; however, most were ineligible to apply for such permits from within Canada.

These restrictions have now been eased, with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishing eligibility criteria for a study permit exemption specifically for construction apprentices holding valid work permits.

Despite the policy update, the government has yet to confirm when the new pathways for permanent residency or related changes will be implemented. Also, no further details have been provided regarding eligibility for the construction worker permanent residency programme.

Developing policies around the recruitment of construction workers

In an effort to further develop policies around construction labour, Minister Sean Fraser has announced the formation of an advisory council that will offer guidance on prevailing wages and determine the number of foreign national construction workers Canada should admit in the coming years.

This council is composed of representatives from government, unions, and industry employers and is scheduled to convene as early as next week.

These reforms are part of broader federal efforts to align immigration, skills training, and economic growth strategies.

The advisory council and study permit exemptions are the initial steps in the government’s comprehensive plan to address labour shortages and enhance the availability of skilled construction workers nationwide.

The Canadian government will provide further details, including timelines for implementing permanent residency pathways, which are expected in the coming months.

From ticket racketeering to sale of fake yellow cards, Nigerian airports have become ideal places for all forms of illegal business. These illegitimate businesses have continued to thrive at airports despite measures put together by airlines and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to address them.

Ticket racketeering

Ticket racketeering has become a growing trend in Nigeria’s aviation industry.

Last year, Turkish Airlines said it dismissed seven Nigerian staff because they violated various ticketing reservation rules that cost the airline over $600,000.

A statement by the Turkish airline said, “Upon discovering the violations, the airline immediately engaged the Union in various discussions on how to address the said violations.

“Specifically, the Union was invited and acted as a member of the disciplinary committee against the erring employees, where it was determined, after the presentation of irrefutable evidence detailing the employees’ wrongdoings, that the employees were liable for gross misconduct and ought to be dismissed.”

At domestic airport terminals, airlines’ staff and touts have continued to make money off the plane shortages experienced at airports, BusinessDay’s findings have revealed.

According to findings, tickets of passengers unable to board are resold to highest bidders at terminals during flight departures.

Secondly, staff of airlines block seats on their websites, preventing passengers from making bookings. These unscrupulous staff, in turn, sell the tickets at higher rates at airport terminals.

Moreover, touts buy tickets from airlines only to resell at higher rates to desperate passengers, using fake ID cards to perpetrate their illegalities.

Susan Akporaiye, managing director and CEO, Topaz Travels and Tours, said ticket racketeering could be in different forms, noting that it is common at local airlines.

The former president of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) further said that unscrupulous staff hack into airlines’ websites and issue tickets, noting that the money does not go into airlines’ coffers.

Akporaiye said that there are allegations that some staff deliberately block seats so as to resell them to desperate passengers.

“A client of mine told me that she needed to be in Lagos and the flight time was moved. Incidentally, she was informed of this at the airport. With this development, there was no way she could meet the event she was going for. She tried to get another airline but could not.

“Someone approached her and told her he could give her a ticket and that some seats were cancelled,” she explained.

Yellow cards

Passengers travelling to African destinations have to visit the Port Health Services at the toll gate close to the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, to obtain yellow fever vaccination cards. The yellow card is an essential travel document within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region. However, more often than not, yellow card applicants are told that the cards have been exhausted.

The passengers are given forms endorsed by the Port Health Services to fill after they have received vaccines. These forms serve as an alternative to the digital yellow cards.

Despite this provision, the sale of fake yellow cards has continued at Lagos international airport. Passengers have complained in recent times that when the forms are presented to the staff, they still demand for yellow cards.

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Chijioke Nnamani, a passenger travelling to Senegal, shared his experience with BusinessDay.

“Despite the form provided by Port Health Services, the airline staff made me believe that the form might not be accepted at the port of arrival. Worried and confused, the staff quickly recommended that a card be given to me if I was interested.

“I told them I had already received the vaccine and didn’t need another. I was told no other vaccine would be given to me; just the card,” Nnamani said.

Nnamani said he was asked to pay N15, 000 for the card.

The following day, he entered Blaise Diagne International Airport but somehow was not comfortable presenting the card and decided to show the form he obtained from Port Health Services.

He said the form was accepted and he was allowed into the country.

Read also: Airlines’ staff, touts cash in on plane shortage

Undeclared luggage

Undeclared luggage is a recent trend that has become a threat to safety.

Domestic airlines have been increasingly getting passengers to pay for their luggage in a bid to raise extra cash to offset high jet fuel costs in Africa’s most populous nation.

BusinessDay’s investigations show that some staff are now conniving with passengers to declare false luggage volumes. Money exchanges hands during the process.

Allen Onyema, chairman and founder of Air Peace, said at a recent stakeholders’ meeting that airlines’ staff now connive with passengers to under-declare luggage in exchange for money.

Onyema said the troubling trend could lead to air accidents because the pilot would think the aircraft is carrying a normal load factor, not knowing the aircraft is overloaded. This, he said, could impact passenger safety.

The cargo load factor (CLF) measures how efficiently an airline utilises its capacity, calculated by dividing the total cargo tonne-kilometers (CTKs) by the available cargo tonne-kilometers.

Airlines use CLFs to assess the efficiency of their cargo operations and identify areas for improvement.

With the new trend, airlines are unable to assess efficiency of their cargo operations.

Harassments

Right from the security checkpoints at the entrance of the airport, officials give passengers the impression that they are potential criminals with questions like, ‘Where are you going to?’ ‘What are you travelling for?’ ‘What is inside your bag?’ Passengers have raised concerns that these questions are only asked at Nigerian airports or when they are suspected to carry contrabands. Some passengers are quick to grease the palms of officials to avoid further scrutiny.

Customs and staff of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) do their random checks and profiling of passengers. However, in some cases, once passengers become generous by giving these officials money, their security checks are faster and sometimes waived.

Jamie Brassington

The UK faces a TWO INCH PER HOUR snow storm which will hit "all" of the country according to new weather maps. A mix of heavy rain and snowfall look set to pummel the country in late March and into April.

Advanced modelling from WX Charts, which uses Met Desk data, shows snow in Northern Ireland and western parts of Scotland, England and Wales at around midday on March 26.

By 6pm, snow could be falling at 5cm per hour - with England worst-hit in the north, alongside swathes of Scotland and Northern Ireland too. A Met Office forecast spanning the end of the month has been published - hinting at what lies ahead.

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READ MORE: All the parts of England, Wales, Scotland set for snow with 5 regions worst hit

READ MORE: Nine counties in England facing -4C snow tomorrow

READ MORE 11 counties in England face 'eight inch' snow next week with 'entire' UK at risk

It states: "High pressure is expected to be centred to the east of the UK initially, with a good deal of fine, dry and reasonably sunny weather in a south to southeasterly flow. Temperatures are expected to rise, to well above average in some areas."

The outlook, lasting March 19 to March 28, adds: "Later in the week there will likely be a gradual transition to less settled conditions from west to east, as low pressure becomes more dominant with an increasing chance of rain or showers by the weekend and into the final week of March, perhaps heavy in places.

"Temperatures, initially above average, will likely trend back closer to normal, although with more cloud this will tend to reduce the risk of frost to an extent."

The forecasting agency has also issued a late March forecast which takes into account the first two weeks of April, too. In it, the forecasters predict: "Confidence is naturally rather low, but blocked patterns are generally more favoured for the end of March and first part of April."

They go on to state: "This can lead to slow-moving areas of low and high pressure, and depending on their location can result in extended periods of either dry conditions or, perhaps more likely, wetter episodes in the form of rain or showers.

"Either way, whilst temperatures overall may be near average, given the time of year this type of regime tends to increase the chance of periods of below average temperatures at times."

BY  Bryony Gooch and Holly Evans

Parts of the UK are set to be hotter than Ibiza and Corfu on Thursday for the first official day of spring.

Thursday marks the spring equinox and temperatures could reach 19C in the south of England, which is eight degrees warmer than the average for this time of year.

The Met Office predicts temperatures will peak on Thursday and will be far above the average temperature for March which averages around 9.2C, according to the forecaster’s data.

Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell said: “Over the coming days, high pressure is going to remain fairly in charge over the UK, keeping things fairly settled.

“As we go into next week, that high pressure begins to move towards the continent and that allows us to start to drag in some warmer air from the near continent, especially as we move into Wednesday and Thursday.”

This is estimated to be hotter than Ibiza, which is forecast to have highs of 17C on Thursday, and Corfu with forecasted highs of 16C.

Temperatures are set to rise consistently over the week when London and the South East can expect highs of 17 to 18C, while further north into Scotland it will feel warmer than usual, with the temperature set to stay above 10.

The cities of Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool will all experience warm temperatures of between 13 and 15C.

Skies are predicted to remain clear with only a hint of cloud in the west of the country on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Istanbul will see a major change in temperature following scorching 25C heat this weekend, as from Tuesday onwards the city will drop into single digits with cloudy weather.

By Bayo Wahab

The University of Dundee in the United Kingdom has been hit with a financial crisis due to President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s devaluation of the naira.

According to The Sunday Times, Shane O’Neill, the institution’s interim principal, blamed the crisis partly on a “severe drop” in international student recruitment.

Other factors contributing to the institution’s financial crisis allegedly include mismanagement of funds and extravagant spending by the university’s senior staff.

O’Neill was quoted as saying that the deficit scale had been “lurking for quite a long time and has only just been fully understood.”

Before the drop in foreign student enrollment, the university reportedly generated nearly half a billion pounds annually for the city economy and three times as much for the UK economy. One-third of these revenues came from tuition fees.

External auditors have been recruited to examine the institution’s finances as the university prepares to cut over 600 jobs to address the problem.

Seven other Scottish institutions are said to be facing a similar crisis.

According to The Sunday Times, Edinburgh University has already warned its staff that “nothing is off the table” as the institution moves to make savings to its £140 million financial black hole.

Since last February, the UK economy, which is largely dependent on its education sector, has been showing signs of distress. This was evident in Enroly’s report indicating a 37% drop in foreign student applications compared with the previous year.

Enroly is an online platform used to recruit international students.

The main reasons cited for the drop are the Nigerian currency crisis and government visa rules initiated to curb migration.

The Times previously showed that Nigeria was providing more students than the EU countries combined, at 33,000. However, due to the naira devaluation and new visa rules, this has fallen by 71%.

Recall that President Bola Tinubu devalued the naira in 2023, barely a month after his administration commenced. 

The policy saw the naira plummet against the US dollar from an average of N388/USD in January 2023 to over N1600/USD in August 2024, while the pound, which exchanged for the naira at N519, spiked to over N2000/GBP within the same period.

The foreign exchange crisis put financial pressure on UK universities that rely heavily on foreign entrants for stability.

Kelly Rissman

President Donald Trump’s policies and rhetoric have driven some international tourists to cancel their trips to the United States.

International travel is expected to dip by 5 percent this year as Trump’s trade policies, proposed handling of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and threats to absorb both Canada and Greenland into the U.S. have stoked tensions abroad.

Combined with an anticipated slide in domestic travel spending, these factors could contribute to a predicted $64 billion in losses for the U.S. travel industry in 2025, according to travel research firm Tourism Economics.

In a report published late last month, Tourism Economics predicted that “domestic travel will be negatively affected by slower income growth and higher prices” while international travel to the U.S. “will be hit by a trifecta of slower economies, a stronger dollar, and antipathy towards the US.”

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Compared to last February, inbound travel to the U.S. last month dipped by 2 percent, preliminary U.S. government data shows.

Trump has demanded that Canada become its “51st state” and has imposed levies on the country.

“Now is also the time to choose Canada,” then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a speech in February following Trump’s initial tariffs. “It might mean changing your summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada and explore the many national and provincial parks, historical sites and tourist destinations our great country has to offer.”

Some north of the border now appear to be taking him up on that idea.

Canadians, the most common international visitors to the U.S., have stopped coming to the country. in droves. Last month, visits by car from Canada to the U.S. plummeted by 23 percent compared to February 2024, Statistics Canada data shows. Similarly, U.S. car trips to Canada decreased by 7.9 percent from the year prior.

Bertha Lopez, a 54-year-old who lives near Toronto, told the Washington Post she used to routinely drive across the U.S. border to buy staple foods, but that habit has come to a screeching halt in light of Trump’s recent rhetoric.

Lopez canceled a trip to Arizona to visit her friend’s sick husband and instead plans to buy her friend a ticket to visit her in Canada.

“All of this talk of making Canada the 51st state has been upsetting. It’s just incredibly offensive,” she said. “So I’m doing what I can: No more Tide. No more Coca-Cola. No more Disney. And barring a funeral or someone in the hospital, I am not going to the United States.”

Overall travel from Western Europe was down 1 percent in February compared to the same month last year, while travel specifically from Denmark dipped by 6 percent in February compared to the same month in 2024, according to U.S. government data.

“Travel from Western Europe, which represented 37% of overseas travel to the U.S. last year, is susceptible to declines as a result of both tariffs and the administration's perceived recent alignment with Russia in the war in Ukraine as sentiment towards the U.S. is damaged,” the Tourism Economics February report warns.

Last week, Trump threatened a 200 percent tariff on alcoholic beverages imported from the European Union, which he called “one of the most hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities in the World.”

Jens Muellers, 31, and his father were planning to travel from Germany to Seattle over the summer to go on a road trip to see some of the national parks in the western U.S.

Trump’s recent remarks about the E.U. — on top of his layoffs at the National Park Service and budget cuts to other departments overseeing federal lands — prompted Muellers to shift gears and head to Canada, he told the Post. This trip would have marked his fifth trip to the United States.

“It’s a real shame and breaking my heart to see what is happening with the national parks and [its] employees right now,” he said. “We won’t come back to the U.S. until things change significantly.”

BY  Rachael Burford

BY  Abubakar Ibrahim and Faith Esifiho 

Nigerians are boiling as power outages intensify heat waves, pushing citizens to their limits.

Across the nation, residents are struggling with high temperatures, with frequent blackouts exacerbating the already difficult weather conditions.

In major cities like Lagos, Abuja, Benin and Port Harcourt, residents are voicing their frustrations as the power supply deteriorates.

Electricity distribution companies have pointed to grid disturbances and transmission faults as the culprits behind the low power generation, but that explanation offers little comfort to those going through the relentless heat without relief.

Read also: How to survive the scorching heat wave amid health risks for Nigerians 

The prolonged blackouts, which have dragged on for weeks in some areas, are disrupting everything from households and small businesses to healthcare services.

Families who depend on the national grid are left in the lurch, forced to find alternative ways to power their homes and keep food from spoiling in their refrigerators.

The combination of scorching temperatures and power outages are pushing people to their limits, highlighting the urgent need for solutions to this ongoing crisis.

“Nigeria is too hot not to have an efficient power supply. How do you expect humans to cope in this heat wave without power? Year in, year out, we complain of this heat wave; it gets worse each year,” Onyekachukwu Frank, a health practitioner, said.

“The last year’s heat wave was more intense than the penultimate year. This year is more excruciating than last year, and the cycle continues. We aren’t proactive as a nation,” he said.

Last Tuesday, the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company Plc (Ikeja DisCo), said the poor power supply currently experienced by its customers across Lagos was due to a transmission line snap that occurred between Towers 420 and 422 on the Omotoso-Ikeja West 330kV transmission line.

Ikeja DisCo claimed the incident led to a reduction of approximately 350 megawatts (MW) in bulk electricity supply, resulting in load shedding across its franchise areas.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) engineers are actively working to resolve the issue and restore normal power supply as soon as possible,” Ikeja DisCo stated in a release.

“We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience and understanding during this period.”

Global warming intensifying

Experts point to global warming and the ongoing depletion of the ozone layer as key drivers of the scorching temperatures, which are now colliding with the country’s worsening electricity crisis to make life even more challenging.

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet)’s latest projections said that the heat would persist in the coming days, peaking in parts of the South, while the North will continue to bear the brunt of even higher temperatures.

In Lagos, the nation’s bustling commercial hub, residents are struggling through sweltering conditions with little respite. The lack of reliable electricity means many are unable to power fans or air conditioning, leaving them to endure the oppressive heat with limited options for relief.

Decentralising the grid

Jide Pratt, COO of AIONA, said the country needs to continue to drive investment in the decentralisation of the grid, the transmission and the distribution value chain of the power sector.

“We need to continue to decentralise the grid, invest in transmission and distribution, and ensure payments are made as and when due to enable cash flow and investment. Finally, we must keep driving alternative energy simultaneously.

“The work on the Siemens deals also needs to be intensified alongside more gas projects like Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) and Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Gas Pipelines.”

Risk of illnesses

According to NiMet, nearly half of the population is at risk of heat-related illnesses like fatigue and irritability, reduced focus and motor skills and lower productivity.

As part of the solutions to the challenges, NiMET advised people to ensure rehydration with adequate fluid intake.

“Seek shade, use fans, and wear light, breathable clothing to reduce exposure to high temperatures,” it said. The agency warned that people should avoid strenuous physical activity during peak heat hours.

Some health physicians who spoke with BusinessDay said there has been an uptick in the presentation of heat rashes in adults and children, noting that people now easily get exhausted.

Chinonso Egemba, Nigerian doctor and health influencer, popularly known as Aproko Doctor, emphasised that the health hazards of heat waves are enormous for children without alternative sources of energy.

“For kids in homes without alternative power, the risks are heat-related illnesses, respiratory issues, poor sleep and low immunity, and food poisoning because no steady light means food spoils faster in the fridge.”

Solutions

However, Egemba proffered solutions to help mitigate the effect of heat waves where there is a lack of alternative power, especially in homes with children.

He said: “Hydration, cross ventilation, taking a bath before bedtime and the use of mosquito nets and repellents would help manage the situation.

“Also, food should be stored wisely. If there’s no fridge, dry, salt, or cook perishable foods to make them last longer. We need to keep pushing for better infrastructure because good health starts with basic needs like electricity.”

Canada added new residents at the slowest pace in three years due to falling immigration, winding down a post-pandemic population boom that strained the economy and soured public sentiment toward newcomers.

The country’s population grew at an annual rate of 1.8 per cent last year, a marked slowdown from 3.1 per cent in 2023 and 2.5 per cent in 2022, according to Statistics Canada’s estimate published Wednesday. With 744,324 peopled added, the number of total inhabitants reached 41.5 million.

While the majority of that growth was driven by international migration, restrictions imposed by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government have started to curb new arrivals and reduce the number of temporary residents in the country.

For much of the past three years, Canada had seen record-breaking population growth driven entirely by massive increases of foreign arrivals. Influxes of international students, foreign workers and refugees had exceeded the country’s capacity to absorb them.

The resulting higher unemployment rate and worsening housing shortages turned newcomer-embracing Canadians to skeptics of mass immigration, forcing the government to scale back its ambitions to quickly grow the labor force and stave off decline from an aging populace.

Still, like many advanced economies, Canada’s birth rates have been falling. Only 2.7 per cent of new residents were from a natural increase. That points to a challenge for future governments to balance short-term needs with long-term prospects.

Trudeau’s successor, Prime Minister Mark Carney, and his chief rival, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, are vying to win the next election expected in the coming weeks. They have both suggested their respective Liberal and Conservative governments would ensure immigration levels are in line with economic needs and capacities.

Randy Thanthong-Knight, Bloomberg News

Thousands of homes have been left without power and more than 1,300 flights will be disrupted after a fire at the North Hyde electrical substation in London.

BY Chris Parsons and James Hockaday

More than 1,300 flights to and from Heathrow Airport will be disrupted on Friday due to the closure of the airport as fire crews continued to extinguish a fire at a nearby electrical substation.

Some 100,000 homes were left without power, more than 100 people evacuated and thousands of travellers plans thrown into chaos after a transformer within the North Hyde electrical substation caught fire in west London.

The airport, which is supplied by the substation, said it was among those impacted by the power outage.

Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said the closure would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow.

It said 120 flights to the airport were in the air when the closure was announced. The cause of the fire is not yet known, though chairwoman of the Commons Transport committee Ruth Cadbury said it was 'speculative' to suggest the blaze had been caused intentionally'.

Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.