UK bans Nigerian students, others from bringing family

The United Kingdom Government has announced the commencement of the implementation of its policy banning Nigerian students and other nationalities studying in the UK from bringing their families over.

The Home Office of the UK made the announcement in a post on its X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday, January 1, 2024.

The Home Office noted that only those on postgraduate research or government-sponsored scholarship students will be exempted from the ban.

It said: “We are fully committed to seeing a decisive cut in migration.

“From today, new overseas students will no longer be able to bring family members to the UK.

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“Postgraduate research or government-funded scholarships students will be exempt.”

The UK had, in May 2023, announced a planned crackdown that will see all master’s students and many other postgraduates banned from bringing family into the UK.

The UK Media House however stated that the ban will not apply to PhD students, whose courses usually last between three and five years and are very highly skilled.

This followed the reports that net migration into the UK has skyrocketed to 1 million with Conservative (Tory) Members of Parliament asking the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, “to get a grip on the rocketing numbers”.

The UK Sun reported that Sunak was expected to come out fighting on immigration – pointing out they were figures he inherited as they date back to the year ending December 2022 – two months after he became the prime minister

“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 (2022), 59,053 Nigerian students brought over 60,923 relatives.

“We have got to get a grip,” a Tory MP said.

The Star