Foreign Prison Staff Get UK Visa Relief

Britain has extended the visas of hundreds of foreign prison officers to prevent staffing shortages in the prison.

The visa relief is expected to cover hundreds of prison officers for 12 months, out of an estimated 2,500 staff who could have been impacted. The temporary extension also applies to dependents already living in the UK.

A report from Sky News said the decision followed “lobbying from the prisons minister, Lord Timpson, and conversations with the Home Secretary and former justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, an agreement has been reached to temporarily extend some of them by a year.”

Foreign Prison Staff Get UK Visa Relief. Credit: BBC.

Sources told Sky News that Mahmood had previously been reluctant to make the exemption as part of her drive to reduce net migration.

The majority of newly recruited prison officers are foreign workers, mostly from Nigeria and West African countries, second only to British citizens.

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Jimisayo Opanuga

Jimisayo Opanuga is a web writer in the Digital Department at News Central TV, where she covers African and international stories. Her reporting focuses on social issues, health, justice, and the environment, alongside general-interest news. She is passionate about telling stories that inform the public and give voice to underreported communities.