Home Office sends letters to children as young as five saying they must leave UK

Rasika Samarasinghe, a care worker who arrived in 2022, with his wife and children – who have now been told they must leave. Photograph: Courtesy of Samarasinghe family View image in fullscreen Rasika Samarasinghe, a care worker who arrived in 2022, with his wife and children – who have now been told they must leave. Photograph: Courtesy of Samarasinghe family Home Office sends letters to children as young as five saying they must leave UK Children of those on care worker visas, who came legally before rule change, told to leave even if parents can stay Children as young as five who are living legally in the UK are being told by the Home Office they must leave the country even if their parents have been given permission to remain. The Guardian has seen five letters sent to children by the Home Office telling them they must leave the UK. A sixth letter has been sent to a woman who is six months pregnant and lives in the UK with her husband, telling her she must leave him and return to her country. The children have parents on care worker visas, which until March 2024 had allowed them to bring partners or children with them to the UK. “We are completely shocked by the family receiving these letters,” said Varuni Arachchige, a care worker based in Perth, Scotland with her husband, who works in a factory. Their two children, aged eight and five, are thriving at school and settled in their community. Arachchige has a degree in chemistry and a postgraduate qualification in analytical chemistry from the family’s home country, Sri Lanka, and an MSc from the University of Dundee in sustainability and water security. Her husband is a graduate in physical science and double maths. He and their children are dependents on her care worker visa. The family paid the Home Office thousands of pounds for their visa applications, pay taxes and do not claim any benefits. The government began to clamp down on family visas for care workers after the Home Office estimated in 2023 that about 120,000 family members were in the UK, joining 100,000 care worker applicants. From March 2024, care workers have no longer been allowed to bring their partners or children with them to the UK, and a ban on overseas recruitment of care workers was introduced from July 2025. However, the children who were sent letters in recent weeks arrived in the UK before the various bans and restrictions came into force. “We have been living legally in the UK since we arrived here on Christmas Day in 2022,” said Arachchige. “My visa has been extended by the Home Office until 2031. But my husband and children who are my dependents have been told to leave the country.” Lawyers said they had seen a rise in these sorts of cases in the past few weeks. Two recent surveys of migrant care workers revealed that new proposals to extend the period before they can settle in the UK – from five years to a baseline of 15 years – could lead to a mass exodus of this group of workers. Tulia Group CIC, which provide