Some Nigerians living in the United Kingdom have faulted the plan by Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, to abolish the Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) visa policy for migrants.
Reform UK, a political party, is being projected to produce the next prime minister of the UK. The latest YouGov poll showed that if general elections were held now, the party would become the largest in the UK, winning 311 seats, a dramatic leap from the five it secured in the 2024 general elections. Farage, the party’s leader, is a close ally of United States President Donald Trump.
ILR is a UK immigration status that confers permanent residency on non-British nationals. It allows holders to live, work, and study in the country without time restrictions, usually after completing five years on qualifying visas. As of the 2021/2022 census, an estimated 293,609 Nigerian-born residents lived in the UK, most of them based in England. In 2024 alone, about 52,000 Nigerians migrated to the country.
At a press briefing last Monday, Farage said his party would replace the ILR with renewable five-year visas under tougher conditions, including higher salary thresholds and advanced English proficiency. He explained that as part of the new policy, non-nationals would be denied access to welfare or the National Health Service (NHS) unless they had private insurance.
“We will abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain altogether, including rescinding it retrospectively,” Farage said.
“This will force people to reapply for visas every five years under much stricter rules, with higher salary thresholds of £60,000 or more, advanced English proficiency, private health insurance, and no access to the NHS or welfare without it.”
Farage argued that about 800,000 people would soon qualify for ILR and that scrapping it would save the country over £230bn. Many Britons appeared to welcome the proposal.
Farage’s remarks, however, drew strong criticism from Nigerians in the UK, who described his plan as insensitive to the vital contributions migrants make to the British economy.
An immigration lawyer, Dele Olawanle, warned immigrants in the UK against political apathy, stressing that failure to vote could empower those working against their interests.
“If you are an immigrant in the UK and you don’t like voting, the ‘enemies’ of the immigrants will take over the UK. They will bring out crazy laws. We thought Brexit was impossible, but this guy, Nigel Farage, misled many Britons. He is at it again. You must prepare to vote,” he wrote in a post on X.
Olawanle also criticised Farage and the Reform Party, accusing them of hostility toward immigrants. “They see nothing good in immigrants, whereas the NHS, for example, will collapse without the immense contributions of immigrants.”
A skilled worker based in Birmingham, Olayemi Adelosi, described the proposal as unfair and unrealistic. He said the policy, if implemented, would affect all non-nationals irrespective of origin, but doubted it would succeed, noting immigrants’ significant contribution to the British economy.
Similarly, Vincent Ajayi, another Nigerian resident in the UK, said many Nigerians panicked after Farage’s announcement. He explained that the proposed replacement amounted to another layer of hardship for those who had planned to apply for ILR after five years.
“They just want to make the process harder by extending it to 10 years. In other countries, one can get it within two to three years. People are scared, as they believe the Muslim community is taking over and the Black community is getting bigger. In a few years, it is said that White people will become a minority. There will be chaos if they start asking people to leave. Where do they expect people to go?” he said.
Ajayi advised Nigerians to apply for ILR and citizenship as soon as possible, warning that the UK’s policy climate was unpredictable.
Ola Wusi, who has lived in the UK for almost five years, said he would be directly affected if the ILR policy were abolished. “I am planning to apply for residency next year. If this policy is enforced, it will affect many Nigerians. Some people started panicking when they heard the statement that ILR will be extended to 10 years. It is their country, and they are doing all they can to frustrate immigrants. We will not be pressured, even though they want to clamp down on us. They are only using this as a political move to gain White people’s votes.”
Another Nigerian in Plymouth, who spoke on condition of anonymity, decried the sharp rise in ILR application fees, stressing that the cost had become unbearable for many families.
“When I came into the UK in 2022, ILR cost about £1,222 per applicant. Its current price now is £3,720 per applicant. Just imagine a family of five having to spend that each for the application. Do you know how many immigrants enrol for it annually?” he said.
He added that the Reform UK leader’s proposal “won’t fly” because many British citizens recognise the crucial role migrants play in sustaining the UK economy.
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