Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has criticised new visa laws that will ban foreign health and care staff from bringing family to the UK.
Ministers laid immigration rule changes in Parliament earlier this week, which include stopping overseas care workers from bringing dependants to the UK.
Khan called the sector’s workers the capital’s "unsung heroes" and warned the new plans will place an "already-stretched" NHS and social care system under more pressure.
It comes as investigations revealed earlier this week that the Home Office issued 275 visas to a care home that did not exist.
Sadiq Khan has SLAMMED the new visa laws
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Khan told The Standard: "London’s care sector workers are some of our capital’s unsung heroes, providing vital support to elderly, disabled and other vulnerable Londoners.
"These proposals would further undermine this critical sector and place the already-stretched NHS and social care system under even more pressure.
"These are the same key workers we relied on during the pandemic, who deserve to finish their working day and see their family. I am particularly concerned by the negative mental health impact these changes will have on separated parents and children.
"The Government needs to recognise the social and economic contribution of migrants and make it easier for them to come and work in the UK in sectors where their support is badly needed, not harder."
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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan praised the sector's workers
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Responding to Khan's claims, minister for legal migration Tom Pursglove said: "We know that migration to the UK remains too high, but our plan will deliver a decisive cut in numbers that the public expect so we can get back to sustainable and well-managed levels.
"Under our new measures, 300,000 people who came to the UK last year would now not be able to come.
"Care workers make a vital contribution to society, and we are grateful to those from overseas who care for our loved ones, but immigration is not the long-term answer to our social care needs.
"These measures laid in Parliament will deliver on our promise and cut the rising numbers of visas granted to overseas care workers and address significant concerns about high levels of non-compliance, worker exploitation and abuse within the social care sector, particularly for overseas workers."
There have been protests against the announcement
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Meanwhile, former chief inspector of borders and immigration David Neal has found that the Home Office issued 275 visas to a care home that did not exist and 1,234 to a company that stated it had only four staff when given a license to operate.
This led to more than 1,500 migrants being allowed to move to the UK under the guise of having a job in the social care sector.
His series of findings from this inspection into the Home Office’s social care visa route, which was introduced two years ago to help plug chronic labour shortages in the industry.
Neal said that his inspectors encountered migrants with care visas working illegally in two out of eight enforcement visits between August and October last year, adding it was representative of the proportion of migrants on care visas working in the UK more broadly.
The report found that more than 123,000 foreign care workers were granted visas in the first 18 months by the Home Office
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The findings mean that about 25,000 of the 101,316 people granted a social care visa in the year to September last year would have been working in other sectors illegally.
Neal said his inspection of the department’s management of the social care visa system had "echoes of previous inspections" that have highlighted the consequences of the Home Office’s failure to accurately forecast migrant numbers.
The number of migrants and employers taking advantage of the relaxation in the visa rules was far higher than expected.
More than 123,000 foreign care workers were granted visas in the first 18 months and an additional 145,000 family members came with them.
There have been concerns about the number of migrant numbers
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In response to Neal's findings, a Home Office spokesperson said: "Care workers make a vital contribution to society, but immigration is not the long-term answer to our social care needs.
"That is why measures due to be laid in parliament will cut the rising numbers of visas granted to overseas care workers and address significant concerns about high levels of non-compliance, worker exploitation and abuse within the sector of overseas workers.
"It is also why the government has announced that providers in England will only be able to sponsor migrant workers if they are undertaking activities regulated by the Care Quality Commission."