At a time when immigration into Britain is already at a record high, the UK government has agreed a visa deal with India that will allow more migrants into the country.
The UK and Indian governments have reportedly agreed a new visa deal which will allow even more migrants to come and work in Britain, reports on Wednesday have claimed.
With the number of migrants entering the country already at a record high, the agreement raises doubts about Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s promise to reduce immigrant arrivals.
According to a report by The Times, the visa deal was finalised by Sunak and Indian PM Narendra Modi at the G20 Summit in Indonesia, with both leaders reportedly billing the agreement as more of a cultural exchange than as a method to allow citizens of each nation to permanently resettle in the other’s country.
Under the arrangement, up to 3,000 visas will be awarded to degree holders in India that will allow them to work in Britain for two years, with a similar number of visas being made available to UK graduates who wish to go to India.
“I know first-hand the incredible value of the deep cultural and historic ties we have with India,” Sunak remarked, praising the deal.
The Prime Minister — whose family originates from the Indian Punjab province — went on to say that the agreement would make the two countries’ “economies and societies richer” by allowing “India’s brightest young people” to come to Britain and “vice versa”.
With the UK issuing a record 1.1 million visas for migrants to come to Britain last year, the UK-India agreement comes as immigration is already at a record high, with immigration from non-EU countries spiking after Brexit.
Some have voiced concern at the number of Indian migrants coming to Britain, with Sunak’s own Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, even saying that she has “reservations” over future trade deals shaping further arrivals.
Others have claimed that the recent influx of Indian nationals was a contributing factor to the recent sectarian riots that have taken place in various UK cities, including Leicester, which saw gangs of Muslim and Hindu men compete for supremacy on English streets.
“…the riots in Leicester and Birmingham were said by both the Hindu and Muslim communities to be caused by people who had recently come from the subcontinent,” Brexit leader Nigel Farage remarked regarding the recent influx, with the former politician and pundit echoing claims by many Muslims that the riots were the fault of foreign Hindu “freshies” associated with Indian nationalist groups.
It is unclear exactly how much merit such allegations have, with one recent report into the matter claiming that many Hindus who were said to be associated with such militant groups in fact had no known links to any nationalist organisations.