India – UK Reciprocal Partnership: Annually 3,000 Degree-Holder Young Indian Professionals to get to Work in UK for up to Two Years

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Nov 16: The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday announced a new “partnership” programme with India under which every year 3,000 degree-holding young Indian professionals in the age group of 18 to 30 years would be placed to work in the UK for up to two years. The scheme will commence in early 2023 and will be on a reciprocal basis.

This announcement in the Downing Street readout came hours after Mr Sunak met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 17th edition of the G20 Summit. This was their first meeting after the first Indian-origin British PM assumed office last month. “Prime Ministers @narendramodi and @RishiSunak in conversation during the first day of the @g20org Summit in Bali,” PM Modi’s Office said in a tweet.

“I know first-hand the incredible value of the deep cultural and historic ties we have with India,” Mr. Sunak said in a statement. “I am pleased that even more of India’s brightest young people will now have the opportunity to experience all that life in the U.K. has to offer, and vice-versa— making our economies and societies richer,” he said. Mr. Sunak had spoken in the summer during his campaign to be Prime Minister about having a reciprocal exchange with India.

The British government said India is the first visa-national country to benefit from such a scheme, highlighting the strength of the UK-India Migration and Mobility Partnership agreed last year. “Today the UK-India Young Professionals Scheme was confirmed, offering 3,000 places to 18-30-year-old degree-educated Indian nationals to come to the UK to live and work for up to two years,” the UK Prime Minister’s Office said in a tweet.

“The launch of the scheme is a significant moment both for our bilateral relationship with India and the UK’s wider commitment to forging stronger links with the Indo-Pacific region to strengthen both our economies,” Downing Street said in a statement. It said the UK has more links with India than almost any country in the Indo-Pacific region. Nearly a quarter of all international students in the UK are from India, and Indian investment into the UK supports 95,000 jobs across the UK. The U.K. government called the launch of the program a “significant moment” for the U.K.-India relationship and also the U.K.’s links to the Indo Pacific. The Indo Pacific was “teeming with dynamic and fast-growing economies” Mr. Sunak said.

The UK is currently negotiating a trade deal with India – if agreed it will be the first deal of its kind India has made with a European country. The trade deal would build on the UK-India trading relationship, already worth 24 billion pounds, and allow the UK to seize the opportunities presented by India’s growing economy. In parallel to the mobility partnership with India, the British government said it is also strengthening its ability to remove immigration offenders.

“A landmark Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the UK and India in May 2021 aimed at increasing mobility between our countries, returning those with no right to be in the UK and India respectively and sharing best practice on organised immigration crime,” the UK PMO added.
Talks on finalizing the trade deal between the countries are still underway and the prospect of them concluding before a Deepavali deadline was diminished in part due to comments by British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who had said Indians were the largest group of visa over-stayers in Britain.

“In parallel to the mobility partnership with India, we are also strengthening our ability to remove immigration offenders,” the Downing Street statement said, citing the May 2021 MoU on the mobility and migration partnership which deals with returning visa over-stayers to their home countries.