The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, has offered reasons why his country banned international students, including those from Nigeria, from bringing family members with them to the United Kingdom starting from 2024.
He stated this when he spoke with State House Correspondents after a meeting with Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Montgomery said: “Many more students are trying to bring their dependents with them, but it’s not always possible to find the housing and services to meet all the needs of all our existing student population.
“We’ll have to manage our migration in and out of the UK.”
The UK Home Office had on May 23, 2023 said international students would no longer be able to bring family members with them, starting January 2024.
It also announced that overseas students would be stopped from switching from student visa route to a work visa until their studies were completed.
Montgomery added when he spoke with State House Correspondents on Wednesday: “I think there are two issues here.
“The first is: It’s not always possible to find the housing and services to meets all the needs of all our existing student population.
“Second, reasonable people would accept that we have to manage our visitor numbers and we’ll have to manage our migration in and out of the UK just as the Nigerian government would do.”
Montgomery said Nigerian students coming to the UK had increased fivefold in the last three years, even as they make up 10 per cent of those granted UK visas annually.
He said: “That issue was not raised in the meeting (with the Vice President) just now.
“But I would like to put the media debate about it in a broader context.
“Last year (2022), for example, the UK granted three million new visas, of which 325,000 were to Nigerians.
“Nigerian visitors constitute over 10 per cent of the people coming to London and the UK.
“It’s a fantastic success story for our universities.
“And we are really delighted that so many Nigerians are coming to the UK.”
