Majority of care workers who were sponsored for skilled work visas in the UK in 2022 came from non-EU countries, a study claimed, adding that the maximum were from India and just one per cent belonged to EU countries. The report was made by Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford. UK's immigration system brought unprecedented number of workers from overseas into health and care workforce in the year 2022-2023, it said.
The study observed that India was the top country of nationality for newly-recruited overseas doctors (20 per cent) and nurses (46 per cent), followed by Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines. India (33 per cent) was also among top countries of citizenship for workers using Certificates of Sponsorship (CoS) in 2022, followed by Zimbabwe and Nigeria, it added.
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From 2017, recruitment of non-EU citizens on skilled work visas increased in the health and care sector amid staff shortages. A sharp increase was observed in 2021 and 2022, according to Britain's Office for National Statistics (ONS) as vacancies in the UK's health and social work sector peaked at 217,000 in July and September 2022. It fell in late 2022 and early 2023.
The UK immigration system admitted unprecedented numbers of overseas health and care workers in the year ending March 2023 as 57,700 care workers received skilled work visas, the study which was commissioned by the employment group ReWage claimed.
{{/usCountry}}The UK immigration system admitted unprecedented numbers of overseas health and care workers in the year ending March 2023 as 57,700 care workers received skilled work visas, the study which was commissioned by the employment group ReWage claimed.
{{/usCountry}}Overall migration into the UK for 2022 was at 606,000- a 24 per cent increase from the previous year.
"Health and care employers have benefited a lot from international recruitment. But relying this much on overseas recruits also brings risks," Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory said, adding, that care workers on temporary visas are vulnerable to exploitation and "the rapid growth in overseas recruitments makes monitoring pay and conditions a real challenge".