Home Office sends letters to children as young as five saying they must leave UK | Immigration and asylum
Five-year-old children living legally in the UK are being told they must leave the country even if their parents have been given permission to stay, the Home Office has said.
The Guardian has seen the Home Office send five letters to children telling them they must leave the UK. A sixth letter was sent to a woman who was six months pregnant and living in England with her husband, telling her that she should leave her husband and return to her country. The children’s parents hold a carer visa, which allows them to bring their partner or child with them to the UK until March 2024.
“We were completely shocked when the family received these letters,” said Varuni Arachchige, a maintenance worker who works in a factory with her husband in Perth, Scotland. Their two children, aged eight and five, are doing well at school and settling into their communities.
Arachchige holds a chemistry degree and postgraduate qualification in analytical chemistry from the family’s native Sri Lanka and a master’s degree in sustainability and water security from the University of Dundee.
Her husband has a degree in physical science and double mathematics. She and her children are subject to her caregiver visa. The family paid thousands of pounds to the Home Office for visa applications, paid tax and did not claim any benefits.
The government began imposing restrictions on family visas for care workers after the Home Office estimated that around 120,000 family members would be in the UK by 2023, with 100,000 care worker applications taking part. From March 2024, care workers are no longer allowed to bring their partners or children with them to the UK, and the hiring of care workers abroad is also banned. introduced From July 2025.
However, the children to whom letters were sent in recent weeks arrived in England before various bans and restrictions came into force. “We have been living legally in the UK since arriving here on Christmas Day 2022,” Arachchige said. “My visa was extended by the Ministry of Internal Affairs until 2031. However, my wife and my dependent children were told to leave the country.”
Lawyers said they have seen an increase in such cases over the past few weeks.
Two recent surveys of migrant care workers found that: new offers Extending the period before settling in the UK from five to 15 years could lead to a mass exodus of this group of workers.
Tulia Group CIC, which provides support and legal advice to migrants, surveyed 269 migrant care workers and all said the settlement route should remain for five years. Only 36% said they would stay with longer settlement rules. In a separate survey of 1,162 migrant care workers by health and social care platform Lifted, 69 per cent of respondents said they would consider leaving the UK if the 15-year rule came into force. The current workforce of sponsored migrant carers provides 4.2 million hours of care per week to 280,000 people; Much of this could be lost if new rules lead to migration.
Rasika Samarasinghe, a care worker who arrived in the UK in October 2022 and studied for a master’s degree in business management at Northumbria University, refused to allow her dependents – her husband, who works as a teacher’s assistant, and their three young children, aged 12, nine and eight – who had obtained visas for her from the Home Office, to remain in the UK.
“I don’t know what to do,” he said. “We have done everything legally in this country and paid every tax the Home Office asked us to pay. I am not someone who works overtime, I just want a better future for my children. My focus is on the family. I cannot do anything without my family. Both my wife and I work hard here. We are very confused about what has happened to us. We have not told the children yet. My children are all settled and doing well at school. The youngest only speaks and writes English.”
Naga Kandiah of MTC Solicitors said: “Migrant care workers in the UK are being put in an impossible situation: [to not] They continue with important work or risk separation from their children or partners. The result is an unfair choice between vital work in the social care system and long periods of separation from family. “These workers care for vulnerable people, but the rules may prevent them from caring for their own families.”
Fizza Qureshi, chief executive of the Immigrant Rights Network, condemned the “go home” order for children. “Migrant care workers continually bear the brunt of this government’s disdain for immigrants. No one should be forced to make the decision to give up their livelihood or leave their family. The government really needs to develop some heart and treat migrant workers, who are the foundation of our health and care systems, with more respect.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We will always welcome those who contribute to this country and those who want to build a better life here. But we must restore order and control at our borders.”
“We have set out plans for the biggest legal immigration reforms in a generation and addressed the challenges caused by unprecedented levels of immigration under the previous government. Settlement in the UK is a privilege, not a right, and this should be earned by rewarding those who contribute and play by the rules.”
