Travel News

BY  Anthony France

Warnings have been issued to overseas visitors to the United Kingdom.

The vast majority must now obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation in advance.

Incoming travellers who failed to comply were previously given a pass, but that option will come to an end February 2026.

Visitors from 85 nationalities, including the United States, Canada and France, who do not need a visa will not be able to legally travel to the UK without an ETA.

The Home Office said it is a significant step towards digitising the immigration system and paves the way for a contactless UK border in the future.

Mike Tapp, the minister for migration and citizenship, said: “While ETA was being rolled out, it was not strictly enforced, to give visitors ample time to adjust to the new requirement.

“This is the same approach other countries such as the United States and Canada took for their travel schemes.”

Airlines will be checking passengers before they travel, the government added.

Since the launch of ETA in October 2023, more than 13.3 million visitors have successfully applied and benefited from faster, smoother travel, the Home Office said.

The scheme is now a fundamental part of leisure and business travelling, including for overseas visitors who take connecting flights and go through UK passport control.

Donald Trump said the United States would suspend migration from what he called “third world countries”, a day after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington DC.

Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died and Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically injured in the ambush-style shooting just yards from the White House on Wednesday.

“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover,” Mr Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening.

Sarah Beckstrom died from her injuries following the shooting

Mr Trump did not identify any countries by name or explain what he meant by “third world countries.”

“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Mr Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens”, adding he would “denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilization.”

Mr Trump’s plan to suspend migrants from “third world countries” comes after the US paused immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely on Wednesday.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees US immigration, said in a post on social media: “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

When Kabul fell to the Taliban, Mr Lakanwal was evacuated to the United States through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era programme, arriving in Washington state on September 8 2021.

Trump announces halt on immigration from 'Third World countries'

Most of the 190,000 Afghans who arrived under the programme were allowed to enter and remain in the US for two years.

Mr Lakanwal was initially sponsored by a local faith organisation and worked low-paid jobs as his immigration case worked its way through the system.

His two-year parole expired in mid-2024, leaving him undocumented and he applied for asylum that December, claiming he feared Taliban reprisals.

After vetting, the Trump administration granted him asylum and a work permit in April this year.

Nearly 24,000 Afghan soldiers and their families were secretly offered asylum in Britain after being caught up in the most serious data breach in history.

Described as “the most expensive email in history”, it led the Government to earmark £7bn to relocate Afghan refugees to Britain over the course of five years, to protect them from possible reprisals from the Taliban.

Sex offenders, corrupt officials and people imprisoned under the US-led coalition are also among those who have been accepted for resettlement in the UK in an apparent failure of vetting procedures.

Mr Trump’s angry post, which finished by wishing Americans a happy Thanksgiving, marked an escalation in the anti-migrant policies of his second term dominated by a mass deportation campaign.

“These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations,” Mr Trump said on Thursday.

“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”

ABUJA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - An Anglican priest kidnapped in northwest Nigeria last month has been killed in captivity, the head of the Church of Nigeria said, as the country reels from a surge in abductions and killings that has drawn condemnation from Washington.
Archbishop Henry Ndakuba said Venerable Edwin Achi, seized with his wife and daughter from their home in Kaduna state on October 28, was murdered after spending about a month in c