Headline

All You Need To Know About UK New Visa Rules

Published

2 years ago

December 5, 2023

The UK government has unveiled a comprehensive five-point plan in a bid to curb immigration.

Mixed reactions have trailed the plan, which encompasses various measures, such as prohibiting care workers from relocating with their families and increasing the minimum salary requirement for skilled worker visas.

Pressure is mounting on James Cleverly, who assumed the role of Home Secretary just three weeks ago, to demonstrate a firm stance on immigration.

“Enough is enough,” Cleverly told MPs on Monday. “Immigration policy must be fair, legal, and sustainable,” he said.

According to Sky News, there is growing anger among Conservatives regarding the recent setback in the Supreme Court regarding the Rwanda deportation scheme.

The PUNCH reports that the Court declared the British government’s proposal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as illegal. If approved, the UK would have been able to send anyone who entered the country illegally to Rwanda.

Additionally, it has been revealed that net migration reached 745,000 last year.

1,180,000 individuals entered the UK with the intention of remaining for at least a year in the year that ended in June 2023, as reported by the BBC.

The latest figures by the UK Office of National Statistics shows that majority of people arriving the UK, about 968,000, are from non-EU countries.

The top five non-EU nationalities were:

Indian (253,000)
Nigerian (141,000)
Chinese (89,000)
Pakistani (55,000)
Ukrainian (35,000)
The home secretary described the new policy as a “more robust” plan than any previous government’s stance on migration.

In this report, PUNCH Online explains the UK’s five-point plan to cut immigration:

Health and care visas

A measure to put a stop to the “abuse of the health and care visa” has been proposed, which would prohibit overseas care workers from bringing their dependents. The government defines a dependant as a husband or wife, a civil partner or single partner, and children under the age of eighteen.

Skilled worker visa minimum salary change

The minimum salary requirement for obtaining a skilled worker visa, currently set at £26,000, has been increased to £38,700. This is a 50% increase.

Shortage occupation list

The Shortage Occupation list is a list that includes jobs that the UK government believes are hard to fill in the labour market for UK residents. These jobs have softer requirements for qualifying for sponsored work visas. However, that is about to change as a result of the new policy, which eliminates the 20% minimum wage reduction offered to those applying for a visa in Shortage Occupations.

Moreover, Cleverly said that the list would be trimmed and reviewed. The current list includes graphics designers, construction workers, vets, programmers, laboratory technicians, among others.

Family visas

To further “ensure people only bring dependants whom they can support financially,” the minimum requirement for a family visa will also be increased to £38,700, from £18,600, the rate from 2012.

Student Visas

“In total, this package, plus our reduction in students dependants, will mean around 300,000 fewer people will come in future years than have come to the UK last year,” Mr Cleverly told MPs.

The government has requested that the Migration Advisory Committee review the graduate route. So changes to the Students Visa are expected to be announced soon.

Headline

Morocco Jails French Rapper Maes For Kidnapping Bid

Published

17 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Editor

A Moroccan court has sentenced French rapper Maes to seven years in prison on charges including the formation of a criminal gang and attempted kidnapping, local reports said Wednesday.

Maes, who has roots in Morocco and whose real name is Walid Georgey, was arrested upon landing in Morocco in January after fleeing the United Arab Emirates, where he feared he could be extradited to France, the reports said.

French authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for him over a separate criminal case.

He appeared in court late Tuesday and was found guilty of “forming a criminal organisation, attempted abduction and unlawful confinement” of a rival in Morocco, news website TelQuel reported.

The rapper with over a billion views on his YouTube channel was accused of tasking a gang and hitmen with killing the rival, but the plot was foiled, TelQuel added.

Maes has denied all charges, with his lawyers calling the case “empty” and “arguing that no evidence linked him to the other defendants”, TelQuel added.

Ten other people were sentenced as part of the case, with terms ranging from one to 10 years, according to news website Media24.

AFP was unable to independently verify the reports as prosecutors were not immediately reachable for comment.

In 2020, when Maes was one of France’s most-streamed rappers, he fell victim to extortion attempts in his native Sevran, a suburb north of Paris, according to reports.

He retaliated by opening fire with weapons he had at home, leading to a shootout. He then fled to Dubai with his family, according to an interview with French YouTube channel LEGEND.

Following the killing of his manager in 2022, he was suspected of ordering reprisals against those he believed were behind the murder, according to reports.

AFP

Headline

UK Court Clears Comedy Writer Of Harassing Transgender Woman

Published

17 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Editor

A London court on Tuesday cleared Emmy award-winning comedy writer Graham Linehan of harassing a transgender activist online but found him guilty of criminal damage to their mobile phone.

Linehan, who co-created the popular 1990s sitcom “Father Ted” but has more recently become well-known for his gender critical views, had been accused of sending Sophia Brooks “abusive and vindictive” messages on social media.

He was also charged with criminal damage after deliberately knocking a phone out of Brooks’s hand as they filmed him on the sidelines of a London conference.

Ruling on the case, District Judge Briony Clarke said she was not convinced Linehan’s conduct “was oppressive and unacceptable beyond merely unattractive, annoying or irritating”.

Clarke also concluded Brooks was not “as alarmed and distressed as they portrayed themself to be”.

But convicting Linehan of criminal damage, the judge ruled he was “angry and fed up” and did not use “reasonable force” when the phone was taken from Brooks.

Clarke fined him £500 ($655) and ordered him to pay costs of £650 and a statutory surcharge of £200.

The Irish writer, who also co-created the popular sitcoms “Black Books” and “The IT Crowd”, became embroiled in a free speech row in Britain earlier this year over his anti-transgender stance.

It followed his arrest at London’s Heathrow Airport by armed police over accusations of inciting violence with his X posts insulting transgender people.

The arrest sparked a backlash and claims of state overreach, including from US tech billionaire Elon Musk. But in October, UK prosecutors said they would take “no further action” in that case.

AFP

Headline

Prosecutors Seek Jail For Italian Influencer Ferragni In Fraud Case

Published

17 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Editor

Italian prosecutors asked a court on Tuesday to sentence fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni to one year and eight months in prison if found guilty of alleged fraud over charity endorsement deals.

The Instagram star and businesswoman has been on trial since September for aggravated fraud over promotions of a pandoro cake — a Christmas treat similar to a panettone — and Easter eggs, which purported to raise money for charity or social causes.

The 38-year-old, who is based in Milan, told the court during the closed-door hearing on Tuesday that she denied the charges and had always acted “in good faith”, her lawyer Giuseppe Iannaccone said.

Leaving the audience, Ferragni told a throng of journalists that she felt “confident… I can’t say anymore”.

A verdict is expected in January.

Aggravated fraud carries a jail term of between one and five years.

But Ferragni has chosen a fast-track trial, which gives defendants a sentence reduction — meaning she cannot receive more than a maximum penalty of two years and three months, according to a source close to her team.

In Italy, people sentenced to prison for less than two years rarely serve jail time.

Ferragni started out with a fashion blog, The Blonde Salad, in 2009, and in 2017, Forbes magazine named her its top fashion influencer.

Chronicling her glamorous lifestyle and being paid to promote high-end brands, she built the blog into a lucrative business, then used it as a springboard to launch her own eponymous label with stores around the world.

Her trailblazing story even became a Harvard Business School example of how social media fame can be monetised.

But the fraud accusations have hit her reputation and her endorsements.

Outside court for a hearing earlier this month, Ferragni acknowledged to journalists that it was a “difficult phase of my life”.

The allegations relate in part to Ferragni’s 2022 endorsement of a pandoro cake purportedly to raise funds for children undergoing treatment at a Turin hospital.

In December 2023, Italy’s communications watchdog (AGCOM) fined two of Ferragni’s companies one million euros ($1.2 million) for unfair commercial practices for the “Pandoro Pink Christmas” promotion — around the same sum they had made in the deal.

Shoppers were led to believe that buying the special edition cake made by Balocco would benefit the hospital, but it only received a single 50,000-euro donation from the company.

Balocco was fined 420,000 euros at the same time.

AGCOM also investigated Ferragni-branded Easter eggs from 2021 and 2022, linked to a social enterprise initiative.

Ferragni and her husband, rapper and music producer Fedez, who were one of Italy’s most famous celebrity couples, split in 2024.

AFP