Carers stressed amid plans to tighten visa rules

Overseas people working in adult social care have said they are "afraid" about proposed changes aimed at making it harder for international workers to remain in the UK.

Currently carers gain the right to live and work here indefinitely if they have been working in the country on a sponsored visa for five years.

A new UK government white paper proposes increasing that to 10 years to reduce reliance on international workers and boost the recruitment and retention of homegrown talent.

Sumedha Aryaratne, a migrant worker from Sri Lanka who moved to Dawlish in Devon with his family to work in domiciliary care in March 2023 said: "I'm stressed. I'm thinking about it all the time."

Mr Aryaratne, 42, is on a care sponsorship visa - a type of skilled worker visa that allows overseas nationals to work in UK adult social care roles under a licensed employer.

He said: "We have fully integrated into society, my wife works, I work, we pay taxes, my kids have made new friends. It's an anxious time for us.

"We are the front line of domiciliary care. This will affect everyone across the board."

There were 27,174 health and care worker visas granted in the UK to main applicants in 2024, an 81% decrease compared to the previous year according to Home Office data.

Jini Jose, 37, moved to Torquay from India almost three years ago and said she is also worried.

She said: "This country is giving us the opportunity to bring our families and we can get a good education for our kids. This news is very sad.

"If we are not allowed to stay, we will have no option than to go back. We hope they will change the rules."

Her colleague Soumya Sebastian, 42, is also originally from India, and worked in Israel for nine years before deciding to come to the UK because she was able to bring her family here.

"We are very afraid of our future. We left our job there to come here, for our family and our future", she said.

The pair work at Sefton Hall care home in Dawlish.

The home's manager, Gabriela Ogreanu, said: "They have such high respect for the elderly. They are family oriented, they are part of the community, their contribution is massive.

"We try to recruit locally from Dawlish but we barely have one or two applicants to do the job. The government says we have to recruit locally, but who wants to do the job":[]}