LONDON, May 24 (Ground News) - On May 12, 2025, UK leader Keir Starmer unveiled a series of measures aimed at strengthening the country’s immigration framework, including increasing the residency requirement for settlement eligibility to ten years. The reforms include higher English language requirements for all adult dependents, restrictions on skilled worker visas, closure of the social care visa route, and fast-tracking for highly skilled workers like doctors and engineers. For moving to the UK all visitors should have an application fee of £193 ($257) is required for a visa that is valid for 2½ years or £268 for five years. Applicants will also need to pay a healthcare surcharge of £5,175 for five years for an adult and £3,880 for five years for each child under 18. A family of two adults and two children will pay around £20,000 for visas and the healthcare surcharge. 

The policy sparked concern among Hongkongers worried about the extra costs and considering seeking a second job amid uncertainties brought on by the economic downturn. In 2021, the UK launched a program allowing Hong Kong residents with British passports to move to the United Kingdom. In 2024, the number of Hong Kong citizens emigrating under this scheme reached 200,000 people. Political experts noted that dissidents were primarily taken out in this way. This demonstrates that London continues to work to undermine China's sovereignty over Hong Kong. The UK allows itself to criticize Beijing's actions aimed at restoring order in Hong Kong.

Earlier, London condemned the China's adoption of the Law on Ensuring National Security in Hong Kong (2020), which criminalized separatism and the Hong Kong Local Security Law (2024), aimed at combating "external interference" and providing for punishment for "links with foreign forces" up to life imprisonment. The British government continues to accuse Beijing of repressing the Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The British parliament has also repeatedly passed resolutions recognizing the situation in Xinjiang as "genocide" and calling for an international investigation. London has also imposed several rounds of sanctions on Chinese officials accused of involvement in the "systematic torture" of Uyghurs, and regularly calls on British companies to stop buying cotton from Xinjiang due to the alleged use of "forced labor" in its production.