The UK Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has warned that she will suspend the issuance of all UK visas to Eritrean citizens unless Asmara re-starts cooperation on the return of Eritreans who have no legal right to remain in Britain. The move follows months of stalled negotiations over a bilateral returns agreement and comes amid record small-boat arrivals by Eritrean nationals, who are now the largest single nationality crossing the Channel. Under powers created in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the Home Office can impose so-called “visa penalties” on countries judged to be refusing to take back failed asylum-seekers or foreign offenders. Previous threats against Angola and Namibia in 2025 prompted both governments to agree new returns protocols within weeks. In Eritrea’s case, the UK will initially target diplomats and senior officials—removing their access to priority processing and limiting travel outside London—before extending the restrictions to all visitor, work and study routes if no progress is made. For multinational employers this could disrupt staffing plans that rely on specialist talent from Eritrea or the wider Horn of Africa. Mobility managers should conduct immediate audits of assignees and prospective hires with Eritrean passports and consider contingency strategies such as remote work arrangements or third-country visa applications. Airlines and travel management companies will also need to update automated check-in systems to flag passengers whose UK entry clearance may have been invalidated. The Eritrean Embassy in London dismissed the threat as a “political gimmick”, claiming the UK had not engaged seriously on technical issues around documentation. Human-rights groups meanwhile cautioned that forced returns to Eritrea risk detention and torture, putting the government on a collision course with refugee advocates as well as with corporate diversity goals. With other high-volume origin countries—such as Pakistan and Nigeria—reportedly “on notice”, business travellers should expect a more activist UK visa-sanctions policy in the run-up to the 2027 general election.
Source: The Guardian
