As things became clear on the meaning of a temporary journey to the United Kingdom, Zimbabweans along with other migrants may have difficulties in journeying to the UK.

The portrait of the United Kingdom immigration landscape can be very bizarre and dynamic where a person can suddenly take the sense of stillness, routine and consistency and change to quick social, psychological and possibly emotional disturbances which can cause chaos leading to disturbia or hysteria.

A theatrical entrance? Could be, but because of great reasons like this, it will make one sobered up! Anyway, ‘extra matter and not much art’, we shall cut to the chase while getting to the point. The UK government, for a while now has being acting on a route of fundamentally changing the UK immigration scene in a negative way, which is a step to make life unsteady for migrants, especially the delinquent and irresponsible one.

However, the condition at the ground level is that the unfortunate migrants get wrapped up in this ensuing battle. We have received enquiries and cases which show that most migrants are unaware of brutal effects of change in immigrations rules that had come into effect in December 2012.

These changes simply mean that the United Kingdom Home Office will no longer be subjected to provisions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 which state that spent and unspent incarceration in regards to immigration and citizenship or nationality choices taken place on October 1 2012 or after where the exemption will take place. Notably, spent and unspent refers to a person who was rehabilitated because of conviction of a crime and their sentence.

 

What is the meaning of this to Migrants?

It is to be noted that the provisions being discussed is will not apply to the individuals who are resident in the UK. This will however applies to applicants who have being convicted or have some form of legal matter whether it is in the UK or in their country of residence. Applications made on the day of December 13 2013 of after will be affected. Under the old law, if the applicant spent had a conviction, a disclosure did not have to be made and it could be disregarded. With the new law all convictions must be disclosed.

 

A cause for concern is that the requirement for good character is not defined and ranges from traffic offences to bankruptcy or even having a bad credit history. Failure to reveal any issues with the courts can lead to the application being rejected. For committing a crime, the penalties are severe where a person serving 4 or more years will be deported and will be slapped with a re-entry ban for life. Period served less than 4 years will result in a deportation and attract a re-entry ban for 10 years. The only escape route is through an appeal based on human rights.

 

Common Thread

Most instructions received from migrants are in the following cases:

Professionals who will lose their job because of an effect such as behavior.

Migrants who drink and drive and don’t have a license or insurance.

Credit card fraud along with domestic violence.

Failure in disclosing additional information.

Migrants who applied under wrong category.

 

Conclusion

For migrants, the future for migration in the UK looks dark. Indefinite leave in the UK can still be revoked. Most migrants have adjusted to the UK system but there is still a few who need to change their behavior.

Whereas matters such as drunk driving an evasion of council tax might be understandable when migrants just arrive, it’s not the case at this point in time.