Sri Lankan families living legally in the United Kingdom on dependant care worker visas are among those who have received Home Office letters ordering them to leave the country, as the UK government tightens the rules around care worker family migration.
At least five children, some as young as five, and a pregnant woman have been issued removal notices in recent weeks, The Guardian reported. The affected families had arrived in Britain before the new restrictions on care worker visas took effect in 2024 and 2025, but are now being told to either separate from their primary visa holder or return home.
“We have been living legally in the UK since we arrived here on Christmas Day in 2022. My visa has been extended until 2031. But my husband and children, who are my dependants, have been told to leave the country,” Varuni Arachchige, a Sri Lankan care worker based in Perth, Scotland, told the Guardian. Her two children, aged eight and five, are settled in school.
Another Sri Lankan care worker, Rasika Samarasinghe, who moved to Britain in October 2022, said his family had complied with every legal requirement. “We have done everything legally in this country, and we have paid every single tax. I’m not an overstayer; I just want a better future for my children,” he said.
The clampdown follows UK government estimates that roughly 120,000 family members joined 100,000 care worker applicants by 2023. From March 2024, care workers were barred from bringing dependants, and overseas recruitment was banned outright in July 2025. Lawyers told the Guardian that cases of dependants being refused entry have risen sharply, while surveys of migrant care workers warn that extending settlement eligibility from five years to 15 could trigger a mass exodus and the loss of millions of weekly care hours from Britain’s NHS-linked social care system.
A Home Office spokesperson defended the policy. “It is a privilege, not a right, to settle in the UK and it must be earned, rewarding contribution and those who play by the rules,” the spokesperson said.
The development directly affects Sri Lanka’s care worker diaspora in the UK, one of the larger recent migration streams since the post-pandemic NHS recruitment push. It also intersects with Dubai-side recruitment expanding for Sri Lankan labour, as Western destinations narrow.
Sources: Newswire, The Guardian.
