Kenyans In Glasgow

24/05/2026

Ballot Opens For Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony.

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The ceremony in July will be the first time the event has been held indoors
Anyone hoping to buy tickets for the opening ceremony of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games can register their interest later.
The ceremony, which will take place at the OVO Hydro on 23 July, will be staged indoors for the first time in the event's history.
With demand expected to be high, people are required to register in advance for the chance to buy tickets, from 12:00, with registration closing at 23:59 on 26 May.
Successful applicants will be selected at random and notified on 1 June before being given the opportunity to purchase up to four tickets the following day.
Adult ticket prices range from £45 to £195, with concession prices also available.
The opening ceremony will begin 10 days of competition and will feature athletes from 74 nations and territories. A cast of 600 performers is expected to take part.

George Black, chair of Glasgow 2026, said the ceremony would mark the moment the city welcomes athletes from across the Commonwealth.
"Gathered in The Hydro, we will share a story of how this city has contributed to the world," he said.
"By entering the ticket draw, we want to give people the opportunity to watch the live action unfold as the Commonwealth comes together in one place to mark the start of the Games."
Louisa Mahon, chief marketing and ceremonies officer, said the event would be a "fast-paced, immersive live experience".

Courtesy of BBC Scotland.

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26/04/2026

Why London Marathon winner Sabastian Sawe has Scottish connection.
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A few years ago, coach Colin was helping a group in Kenya and supplying kit which had been generously gathered by West End Road Runners.
‘I have been a regular visitor to the town of Iten (Home of Champions) in Kenya since 2015 and on those trips I have worked with numerous athletes and coaches,’ explained Colin.
‘In 2018 we did a ‘Kit for Kenya‘ campaign whereby we gathered unwanted running clothing from the good people of Glasgow and a lot of it came from the West End Road Runners.
‘We shipped it out and I distributed the kit when I was out there to upcoming athletes who were in need. Sabastian Sawe was one of the runners who benefitted.
"We also took a group of eight young athletes who were showing promise and created a kind of mini training camp whereby we gave them a house to live in, food and coaching.
‘I coached a number of sessions while I was out there and left them in the capable hands of Kenyan coach John Ewoi, while I provided the training plan from afar. Some of these athletes were making great progress and Sawe in particular.
‘Covid restrictions prevented this from going any further from 2020 but I had heard that Sabastian was signed by a major management company and was well on the way to being an accomplished athlete.
‘He made his debut winning Valencia in 2024 as he showed that his talent and promise was real. He has backed that up with the London success.
‘I managed to catch up with him in London after winning the marathon and that was a great moment.’
Courtesy Of Scottish Athletics.
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09/04/2026

Asylum seekers waiting over a year for claim in UK may be allowed to work under new measures.
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Shabana Mahmood hopes to reduce number of claimants in hotels by enabling them to support themselves
Rajeev Syal -Home affairs editor
Wed 4 Mar 2026 22.30 GMT
Up to 21,000 asylum seekers who have waited for a year for their claims to be processed could be allowed to enter the jobs market so they can support themselves, the Home Office has said, as part of a package of measures to be announced on Thursday.
As the government seeks to empty asylum hotels, claimants who break the law, work illegally or are found to have enough assets to live without support will from June be ejected and lose their support payments.
The developments have been questioned by the Refugee Council for risking an increase in rough sleeping among those escaping war and famine.
They come as Shabana Mahmood has hit back in a column for the Guardian at demands from senior labour movement figures for ministers to stop focusing on migration and to soften their attacks on the Green party.
The home secretary wrote: “Restoring order at our border is not just an embodiment of Labour values, it is the necessary condition for a Labour government to do anything at all.”
Mahmood wrote that Labour’s vision should appeal to the mainstream and be “neither the nightmare of Farage’s borders, effectively closed, nor the Greens’ fairytale of borders effectively open”. She also said the government planned to launch a new “safe and legal” route in the autumn for students seeking refuge.
There are about 30,600 people awaiting asylum claims living in roughly 200 hotels across the UK, and 107,000 people receiving asylum support, the Home Office said.
At present, those in dispersal accommodation, such as private housing, receive £48 a week, while those in hotels receive £9.95 per person.
Officials are seeking to move on many of the 21,000 people who have been in hotels for more than a year by extending permission to work.
If they find work, the intention is that they would fall under the category of having asylum support removed and eventually move out.
The statutory legal duty under EU law to provide asylum seekers with support and accommodation would be revoked on Thursday, the Home Office said.
Instead, it would be replaced with a conditional approach, so support would be reserved only for those who genuinely needed it and followed the law.
The measures, which will be laid in parliament and come into force in June, would remove support payments and accommodation to asylum seekers who illegally work, have the ability to support themselves, have the right to work or have broken the law.
The Home Office did not respond to questions asking if the 21,000 would be restricted to jobs on the “immigration salary list”.
Asked on what criteria the Home Office would decide whether an individual has enough assets to survive without financial support, a source said it would be “on a case by case basis” and with no set threshold.
Keir Starmer and Mahmood have been facing calls from across the labour movement to move towards progressive policies in the wake of the Green party victory at the Gorton and Denton byelection.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, wrote in the Guardian: “A political strategy of taking liberal, progressive voters for granted is clearly flawed.”
“The vast majority of those who are thinking of voting Green are not extreme,” Khan said.
The latest announcement comes after the home secretary visited Denmark last week to see how it has tackled immigration, bringing asylum claims to a 40-year low.
Mahmood is following the Danish model in which the government seeks to make it less attractive for illegal migrants to come to the UK.
She will make a speech today at the IPPR thinktank on Thursday outlining how these reforms are in line with her British values.
Imran Hussain, the director of external affairs at the Refugee Council, said: “Forcing people into destitution will not fix the system or deter people who have escaped torture or persecution. Instead, it is more likely to push them into sleeping rough, and shift costs on to local authorities and the NHS, making cases harder to resolve.”
Courtesy of The Guardian.
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17/03/2026

I’m 68 and the unhappiness didn’t arrive suddenly. It came the day I realized I’d spent forty years building a life that required me to be needed, and now nobody needs me for anything that actually matters
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I woke up at 5:47 AM last Tuesday, just like I’ve done every weekday for the past thirty-five years. Except this time, there was no reason to get up. No emails waiting. No meetings to prepare for. No one expecting me to solve their problems before lunch.
The silence was deafening.
That’s when it hit me. The unhappiness I’d been feeling wasn’t new. It had been creeping in slowly, like water damage behind a wall. You don’t notice it until the whole structure starts to buckle.
The trap of being indispensable
For four decades, I built an identity around being needed. At work, I was the guy who knew where all the files were, who remembered the context behind every decision, who could smooth over any conflict between departments. At home, I was the provider, the problem-solver, the one who handled the taxes and fixed the leaky faucet.


Being needed felt like being valuable. It felt like mattering.
But here’s what nobody tells you about making yourself indispensable: you’re actually building a prison. Every time someone came to me with a problem, I felt important. Every crisis I solved reinforced my worth. I never taught anyone else how to do what I did because, honestly, I liked being the only one who could do it.
Now my former company runs just fine without me. My adult children manage their own taxes. Even the grandkids prefer their parents’ help with homework.
When your purpose has an expiration date
You know what’s funny? I spent years mentoring younger employees, helping them find their paths, develop their skills, become more confident. I loved watching them grow. But I never once thought about what would happen when they didn’t need my guidance anymore.
That’s the thing about building your identity around being needed. It works great until it doesn’t.
My middle child called last week. Not for advice about his job or help with his mortgage application. Just to chat. And I found myself desperately fishing for problems he might have, issues I could solve. When he said everything was fine, I felt disappointed. How messed up is that?
The difference between being needed and being wanted
Here’s a question that keeps me up at night: Did I train everyone in my life to need me instead of want me?
There’s a massive difference between the two. Need is transactional. You need someone to fix your car, do your taxes, approve your vacation request. Want is relational. You want someone’s company, their stories, their presence.
I realize now that I was so busy being useful that I forgot to be interesting. I knew every policy at work but couldn’t tell you the last book I read for pleasure. I could recite my kids’ schedules but couldn’t remember the last time we just talked without an agenda.
Sunday mornings with the grandkids have taught me something. They don’t come for the pancakes, though I make pretty good ones. They come because they want to. They laugh at my terrible jokes. They ask me to tell them stories about when their parents were young. They don’t need me to solve anything. They just want me there.
Rebuilding when the foundation is gone
So what do you do when you realize you’ve spent forty years building the wrong life?
First, you grieve. I’m not ashamed to admit that. You mourn the time you spent chasing the wrong kind of value. You regret the school plays missed because someone at work “needed” you more. You wish you could go back and tell your younger self that being indispensable at work means absolutely nothing when you’re sitting alone at 5:47 AM with nowhere to go.
Then you start rebuilding. But this time, you build differently.
I’ve started taking pottery classes. I’m terrible at it. My bowls look like they were made by someone wearing oven mitts. But I love it because nobody needs me to be good at it. I’m learning Spanish through an app. I may never be fluent, but I’m doing it because I want to, not because anyone expects it from me.
Finding value beyond utility
The hardest part of this transition is learning to value yourself for who you are rather than what you do. When you introduce yourself at a party and can’t say “I’m a manager at…” anymore, who are you?
I’m still figuring that out.
But I’ve noticed something. When I stopped trying to solve everyone’s problems, when I stopped positioning myself as the expert with all the answers, people started sharing more with me. Real stuff. Not just problems to fix but thoughts, fears, dreams.
My daughter called yesterday. She didn’t need anything. She just wanted to tell me about a funny thing that happened at her office. We laughed together for twenty minutes. It was the best conversation we’ve had in years.
Maybe being wanted is actually harder than being needed. It requires you to be genuinely interesting, genuinely interested, genuinely present. You can’t hide behind your utility. You have to show up as yourself.
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22/02/2026

Dual Nationals Face Scramble For UK Passports As New Rules Come Into Force-17/2/2026.
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The British-Latvian dual national is among those who say they have been caught out by upcoming changes to passport rules for dual nationals, which are due to kick in on 25 February.
Entry requirements for dual nationals are being overhauled as part of sweeping changes to the immigration system the government says will streamline and modernise the UK border.
But for Jelena, who has lived in the UK for 16 years, the changes are a "betrayal", and others in the same situation have told BBC News the prospect of being denied entry is causing anger and concern.
Here are how the new rules will work - and why Jelena and others like her are furious about it.
How are passport rules for British dual nationals changing?
Under the existing rules, a British dual national - whose other nationality is from a country not subject to a UK visa requirement - could travel to the UK using their foreign passport.
But from 25 February that will no longer be the case.
Instead, they will need to show either a British passport, or a new digital version of the certificate of entitlement to attach to their second nationality passport - and without one of them, they could face being denied the right to travel back to the UK.
Neither British passports or certificates of entitlement are automatically issued to people who obtain citizenship, which means some dual nationals have never applied for them, even if they have lived in the UK for decades.
Both documents take several weeks to obtain and there are costs too. A British passport costs around £100 for an adult, while the certificate of entitlement costs £589.
British nationals with dual citizenship could be refused access to the UK if they do not have a UK passport or a certificate of entitlement
These new rules for dual nationals are linked to the roll out of the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system this month, a major immigration reform which will require visitors to the UK who do not have a visa to apply for a £16 entry document before arriving.
The government said it plans to increase the ETA fee to £20 in the future.
Dual nationals cannot apply for an ETA and must meet the new documentation requirements instead, with checks now carried out by airlines when departing en route back to the UK.
The new rules do not apply to Irish passport holders but other EU citizens will be affected.
According to the latest census in 2021, 1.2% of UK-born residents were UK-other dual citizens (587,600) and 6.5% of non-UK-born residents were UK-other dual citizens (648,700).
The government has said the reforms bring the UK's immigration system into line with countries like the US and Australia.
But critics say the looming deadline and a lack of communication around the changes have left people scrambling to apply for new documents, with dual nationals who are out of the country on holiday or visiting family facing the prospect of being stranded until they can acquire a passport or the certificate.
How are people being impacted by the new rules?
Jelena, who was born in Latvia and has lived in the UK ever since coming to study, became a British citizen in November.
The 34-year-old chartered surveyor told BBC News she delayed applying for a British passport when she became a citizen as she was travelling to see family for Christmas, so could not send off her Latvian passport as part of the application process.
Jelena only learned of the changes recently and is unable to apply for new documentation immediately as she is due to go on a long-planned trip to South America in a few weeks and may not get her passport back in time to travel.
"As it stands, after South America, I won't be able to return to my flat [in Glasgow], which me and my husband own, in the country I have lived in for nearly 16 years, studied in and paid taxes," she told BBC Your Voice.
Jelena intends to change her travel plans by returning to Latvia after her trip to apply for a British passport from there, potentially facing a wait of several weeks or months for it to arrive.
"I'm lucky that my employer is flexible about me working from abroad - if that wasn't the case, I wouldn't have a job because of this," she said.
"If I hadn't applied for citizenship and just had an EU passport, I would be in a better situation than I am now," she added.
"The irony is that I've chosen to be part of this country but it feels like I'm being deported. It feels like a betrayal."
Petra Gartzen, a UK-German dual national who has lived in the UK for four decades, said she was furious at the lack of communication about the upcoming changes and is frantically trying to secure a passport from Spain, where she is staying for a few months over the winter.
She told BBC News: "They changed the rules when I was already in Spain. There was no lead up, no major announcement - I found out about it from a Facebook post, and just thought, now what?"
The government says publicly available information has been in circulation about the upcoming changes since October 2024 but critics say it has not cut through to people affected.
Petra, a tech industry analyst, was told she would need to travel from southern Spain to Madrid for an appointment in order to apply for the "ridiculously expensive" certificate of entitlement while outside the UK, adding to the expense.
Petra says she is frantically applying for documentation so she can return home to the UK from Spain in time for work commitments
Petra has now applied for a UK passport from Spain - but that had its own complications. "They agreed to accept a notarised copy of my German passport so I did not have to send that off, but they also wanted my original citizenship certificate - which I don't have, it's in the UK," she explained.
Petra now has a "nervous wait" to see if the documentation she was able to provide is accepted and processed in time for early March, when she is due to travel back to the UK before heading to the US for work.
She said she felt let down by the way the changes have been introduced, adding: "I've been a British citizen since 2019. The UK is my home - I've lived there for 40 years, I own a home, I work and pay tax. My whole life is there."
Swiss dual national Shaun West said he was considering not replacing his British passport and renouncing his citizenship over the new requirements.
"There's no worth in it for me," said the university professor, who became a Swiss citizen after Brexit.
He said he would rather pay the ETA fee to temporarily enter the UK to see his parents, adding: "[The government] said I'll lose consular services. I'm not bothered. [They said] you won't be able to live here. I'm not going to."
West said that he found out about the rule change "utterly by accident" by reading online about how it affected Canadians, and said he believed it was discriminatory against dual nationals.
Shaun West is considering renouncing his British citizenship
Norwegian dual national Linn Kathenes, who lives in the UK, said she was only notified by the Home Office about the new rules last week.
The teacher said that the changes mean she is now in a race against time to make arrangements for an upcoming overseas school trip.
Kathenes explained that she is waiting to collect her Norwegian passport, which she had to renew. She needs to send over the document before she can begin the process of getting the UK passport required to travel.
"I don't see another way, I just have to gamble", she said.
The Home Office has been contacted about her case.
Campaign group the3million, which represents EU citizens in the UK, has also criticised government communication around the changes.
"The Home Office has not done enough to warn dual nationals of the serious impact this will have on them," the group's head of policy and advocacy, Monique Hawkins, said.
She has called on the government to "urgently hit the pause button" and introduce a "low-cost, one-off travel authorisation" for dual nationals who have found their travel plans disrupted.
A Home Office spokesperson said: "Public information advising dual nationals to carry the correct documentation has been available since October 2024 and a substantive communications campaign about the introduction of ETA has been running since 2023.
"This requirement applies to all British citizens regardless of other nationality and is the same approach taken by other countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia."
Courtesy of BBC News
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KIS, which was founded by a group of 200 volunteers as a Community Group in 1999, is a community group for Kenyans living in Scotland.

07/01/2026

In 2026, Citizens From These 7 Nations Are Limited From Entering The U.S. – Along With 19 Others
Jan 02, 2026.
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Miami, Florida, Miami International Airport MIA terminal, American Airlines skycap, passenger checking in at curbside baggage check. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)... More
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As Americans ring in the new year, millions of people abroad are waking up to a very different reality: The door to enter the United States just inched a bit closer to being shut.
Under a newly expanded presidential Proclamation issued by the President under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, citizens of seven additional countries are now subject to a near-total bar on entering the United States, on top of an already sweeping set of restrictions that cover 19 other nations.
Taken together, advocates estimate that roughly one in five people who would otherwise be eligible to immigrate legally to the U.S. are now barred from doing so, and hundreds of thousands more will be blocked from obtaining or renewing temporary visas to study, work, or visit family.
The New Seven
The latest Proclamation tightens the June 2025 travel ban and moves seven nations into the harshest category: a total suspension of both immigrant and non-immigrant visas (covering everything from permanent residency to tourist, student, and work visas).
Effective with the new year, citizens of the following seven countries are now almost completely barred from entering the U.S.:
• Burkina Faso
• Laos
• Mali
• Niger
• Sierra Leone
• South Sudan
• Syria
In addition, individuals traveling on Palestinian Authority–issued (PA) travel documents now face full restrictions and entry limitations, effectively cutting off most PA document holders from U.S. visas. For these seven nations, access to the US has been reduced to rare case-by-case waivers labeled as “national interest.”

LUANG PRABANG, LAOS - APRIL 11: Chinese tourists take part in an alms giving ceremony to Buddhist monks on April 11, 2024 in Luang Prabang, Laos. (Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)... More
GETTY IMAGES
The 19 Countries Already On The List
These new restrictions do not replace the prior bans. Under the earlier June action, 19 countries were already facing broad limits. Twelve were subject to a near-total ban on both immigrant and non-immigrant visas:03:12
• Afghanistan
• Burma
• Chad
• Republic of the Congo
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritrea
• Haiti
• Iran
• Libya
• Somalia
• Sudan
• Yemen
Seven more faced a total ban on immigrant visas and a partial ban on tourist, student, and exchange visas:
• Burundi
• Cuba
• Laos*
• Sierra Leone*
• Togo
• Turkmenistan
• Venezuela
(*Laos and Sierra Leone have now been moved into the toughest category — full bans on immigrant and non-immigrant visas.)
Turkmenistan is the lone technical “winner,” moving from a full ban on both immigrant and non-immigrant visas to a somewhat softer standard: its nationals can still not immigrate, but temporary visas are possible.

TOPSHOT - Students sit in a classroom during the visit of Britain's Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh (unseen), to New Era Girls Senior Secondary School in Lagos, on November 20, 2025. (Photo by OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP) (Photo by OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP via Getty Images)... More
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The latest order also significantly grows the “partial ban” category — countries whose citizens are now blocked from immigrant visas and from the most common non-immigrant categories (business/tourist B-1/B-2, student F and M, and exchange visitor J visas).
Those 19 nations are:
• Angola
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Benin
• Cote d’Ivoire
• Dominica
• Gabon
• The Gambia
• Malawi
• Mauritania
• Nigeria
• Senegal
• Tanzania
• Tonga
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe
• plus four countries that were already under partial restrictions and remain so: Burundi, Cuba, Togo, and Venezuela
One of the most heavily impacted is Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Over the last decade (excluding COVID-era disruptions), Nigerians received an average of about 128,000 immigrant and non-immigrant visas annually. Under the new rules, nearly all of those visa pathways are now cut off.
Perhaps the most consequential change is for families: the new Proclamation eliminates several key exceptions that previously softened the June ban. No longer exempt are: immediate relatives of U.S. citizens (spouses, minor children, parents), children adopted abroad, Afghans seeking special immigrant visas for assisting U.S. armed forces.
A U.S. citizen married to someone from Nigeria, Syria, or Eritrea, for example, will now generally be unable to sponsor that spouse or child, without a national-interest waiver, despite long-standing family-reunification pillars in U.S. immigration law.
Courtesy of BBC
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We welcome all those who wish to be active participants in the effort to build harmony and mutual respect between people of different ethnic backgrounds. We do this by encouraging social contact and developing projects that can help to foster integration and bring cultural and economic benefits to b...

09/11/2025

Slavery And Colonial Trail To Be Launched In Glasgow.
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7 November 2025
A slavery and colonial trail is to be launched in Glasgow next year.
The trail aims to ensure the city's role in the slave trade continues to be "acknowledged, understood and remembered", according to a council paper on the move.
The city has 62 streets and locations with historic connections to slavery – including Buchanan Street – as well as a number of buildings, while eight figures linked to the trade are also commemorated across monuments in the city.
However, previous discussions about renaming streets and removing some statues will not be taken forward currently, according to the council.
In 2022 the council issued an apology on behalf of the city to the descendants of enslaved people and the nations affected.
Glasgow was a major trade route for sugar and to***co for the slave states of America and the West Indies.
The new trail is proposed to begin in spring 2026 and would be funded by the local authority's City Stories Fund.
A council paper said there was support for "providing a fuller context around this chapter of Glasgow's history, through improved interpretation around the city's-built heritage".
It added: "This will now be progressed in a new slavery and colonial legacy trail."
Officers from Glasgow Life and the chief executive's department will set up a working group to oversee the development of the trail.
The information used will be based on research by Dr Stephen Mullen, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow.
The paper on the plan will be presented to Glasgow's wellbeing, equalities, communities, culture and engagement city policy committee next week.
Courtesy of the BBC
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We welcome all those who wish to be active participants in the effort to build harmony and mutual respect between people of different ethnic backgrounds. We do this by encouraging social contact and developing projects that can help to foster integration and bring cultural and economic benefits to b...

01/11/2025

President Samia Suluhu, has been declared the winner of the recent Tanzania general election with 98% of the vote.
According to the Electoral Commission, she secured 31,913,866 out of 32,678,844 votes cast.

22/10/2025

15/10/2025

Carer Says Visa Changes Are 'Tearing' Families Apart.
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A lack of clarity about changes to the right to live and work indefinitely in the UK is "tearing" migrant workers apart, one carer has said.
Lyn Muchegwa, 36, moved to Cheltenham, Gloucestershire from Zimbabwe with her family in February 2023 on a five-year visa sponsored by a care company.
She planned to apply for settled status when the mandatory five-year waiting period was up. However, government proposals could see that period doubled - meaning Ms Muchegwa would have to stay at the firm for 10 years.
A Home Office spokesperson said it would consult on the proposals later this year and provide details about "transitional arrangements for people already in the UK".
To apply for a temporary visa, candidates must first obtain a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS). They are then obliged to remain with the same sponsor for the duration of the visa.
Currently, most migrants who come to the UK on time-limited work visas can apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years.
The government has set out a wide package of measures to cut legal immigration, which included a requirement for migrants to typically live in the UK for 10 years before applying for the right to remain.
"It's really concerning because you are just stuck in one place, with one employer, and not able to explore other sectors because your visa is limiting you to certain things," Ms Muchegwa said.

Former teacher of immigration law Kim Edmonds said many migrant workers accepted jobs with sponsors but planned to move on once they had settled status.
"Then you're told, 'by the way, the government is proposing to double the time to 10 years'," Ms Edmonds said.
She added some workers have to travel to clients by bus, including in the middle of the night, because they are unable to drive.
She also claimed some sponsored employees faced "appalling" working conditions.
"I've heard of some working fundamentally terrible hours and no paid travel time between clients," she said.
"Payment is frequently delayed and there are extractions for all kinds of bits and pieces, which can mean they're working on well below the minimum wage."
She said workers are reluctant to complain out of fear their sponsorship will not be renewed.
Ms Muchegwa, who has a 10-year old daughter and a 19-year-old son living with her in the UK, said her dream was one day to manage her own care service, but that was now on hold.
"The 10-year wait is a long wait and you have limited time to do your education, so it's really hard," she said.
Ms Muchegwa has said she feels lucky because her sponsor, Merit Care, is a good employer - but she is locked into working for them until she secures settled status.
"We don't know where we stand and what the outcome will be," she said. "It's not a stable environment so it's stressing us out.
"It's tearing us apart because you don't spend time with your children.
"It really affects the family as my children, they're growing, and you don't have time with them."
Merit Care was approached for comment.
Mary is a live-in carer in Gloucestershire who moved to the UK from Zimbabwe several years ago and now supports other migrant workers by paying for their driving lessons.
She claimed that despite companies being licensed by the Home Office, many foreign workers are being "exploited" by their sponsors.
"Some of the employers, they are not treating them right, so the workers want to get out as soon as possible," she said.
"But the companies don't care and they say, 'If you don't do it, you're out of this, I'll take your CoS'. Everyone is afraid of losing their CoS.
"It's like being suffocated; they're being exploited; they're ready to explode."
CEO of Care Workers' Charity Karolina Gerlich said changing the rules part way through people's existing visa periods "undermines trust and stability".
Members of the charity's Care Worker Advisory Board and Champions Project warned the move "could increase exploitation" and create a sense of "betrayal".
"It makes people feel unwanted, and many may look to countries where their work is more valued," said a spokesperson.
"It adds real financial and emotional strain and some families are already struggling to stay together under the pressure."
According to the latest government figures, Health and Care visas were issued to 160,601 people in caring and personal services roles from the start of 2021 to the end of June 2025.
A Home Office spokesperson said there had been "significant concerns over abuse and exploitation of care workers from overseas", with overseas recruitment for Adult Social Care ending on 22 July as a result.
It added it was working with local authorities and other organisations to share intelligence about illegal or unethical practices in adult social care.
Courtesy of BBC
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We welcome all those who wish to be active participants in the effort to build harmony and mutual respect between people of different ethnic backgrounds. We do this by encouraging social contact and developing projects that can help to foster integration and bring cultural and economic benefits to b...