LONDON: The UK’s oldest medical union on Saturday hit out at government plans to increase the amount migrant workers pay to use the state health care service, to cover public-sector wage increases.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government this week approved recommendations to boost wages of teachers, doctors and police by between 5.0 to 7.0 percent.
Sunak ruled out tax increases or government borrowing to fund the rise but instead said hikes in the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and visa fees would raise £1 billion.
Doctors in Unite, which represents junior doctors, general practitioners and hospital consultants, said it was “appalled” at the move, as it would see migrants pay double to use the NHS.
Most employees in the UK have National Insurance contributions deducted at source on their salaries, which pays for the National Health Service, as well as state pension and unemployment schemes.
“Just like other workers, migrants contribute to NHS funding through general taxation. Doubling the NHS surcharge to over £1,200 ($1,570) per year is an unjust additional penalty,” Doctors in Unite said.
“Migrants are effectively ‘taxed twice’ to access the same service,” it added, calling the move “immoral and divisive.”
The IHS, initially brought in to prevent “medical tourism,” is now paid by most migrants under tighter post-Brexit entry rules.
It is paid per person in addition to visa fees for stays of more than six months.
Over-18s pay £624 per year while students and under-18s pay £470 per year.
The government has proposed raising the IHS for adults to £1,035, and £776 at the reduced rate.
Work and visit visas will go up by 15 percent, while the cost of student and leave-to-remain visas among others will rise by at least 20 percent.
Net migration in the UK hit a record 606,000 in 2022, according to official figures released in May, heaping pressure on the government, which has pledged to cut dependency on foreign labor.
Sunak has described legal immigration levels as “too high,” and is separately battling record levels of asylum claims from migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
Critics warn the IHS increases — paid for by individuals or their companies — could worsen under-staffing in many sectors, and prompt high-skilled workers and students to go elsewhere.
Migrant and refugee charity Praxis has accused ministers of treating people born outside the UK as “cash cows” at a time when they were struggling to repay already high visa renewal fees.
Genomics research center The Wellcome Sanger Institute said it spent more than £300,000 in immigration fees for its employees in 2022.
“These proposed increases create further barriers for global talent... and will have a detrimental effect on UK and global science,” said head of policy Sarion Bowers.
UK immigration fee hikes face criticism
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UK immigration fee hikes face criticism
- Sunak ruled out tax increases or government borrowing to fund the rise
- Hikes in the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and visa fees would raise £1 billion
Czech authorities detain 5 teens over online radicalization by Daesh and charge 2 with terror plot
- The five were promoting hate content on social media against minorities, certain communities and Jews
- The suspects were also involved in online groups recruiting fighters for Daesh militants in Syria
PRAGUE: Czech authorities have detained five teenagers for being radicalized online by the militant Daesh group and charged two of them with terror-related crimes over an attempt to set fire to a synagogue, officials said Wednesday.
Břetislav Brejcha, the director of the Czech counterterrorism, extremism and cybercrime department, said most of the suspects are under 18 years old.
They were detained between February and June as a result of an international investigation that started last year.
The five were promoting hate content on social media against minorities, certain communities and Jews, Brejcha said. During seven raids in the Czech Republic and Austria, police seized some weapons, such as knives, machetes, axes and gas pistols.
On Jan. 29, 2024, two of the five tried to set a synagogue in the second largest Czech city of Brno on fire, Brejcha said without offering details.
The following month, Czech media reported an arson attempt and said police were looking for witnesses. The reports said two suspects placed a firebomb in front of the synagogue but it did not explode and no damage was reported.
The charges against them include hate-related crimes, promotion and support of terrorism and a terror attack attempt.
The suspects were also involved in online groups recruiting fighters for Daesh militants in Syria, Brejcha said. The Czech authorities cooperated with their counterparts in Austria, Britain, Slovakia and with the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol in this case, he added.
Michal Koudelka, the head of the Czech counterintelligence agency known as BIS, said the five shared a fascination with violence and hatred against Jews, and others.
They were approached online by Daesh members and became radicalized, Koudelka said.
“We consider online radicalization of the youth a very dangerous trend,” Koudelka said, adding that the suspects had not been in touch with the local Muslim community.
Armenia PM says foiled ‘sinister’ coup plot by senior cleric
- Pashinyan has been at loggerheads with the Church since its head, Catholicos Garegin II, began calling for his resignation
- “Law enforcement officers have foiled a large-scale and sinister plan by the ‘criminal-oligarchic clergy’ to destabilize the situation,” Pashinyan wrote
YEREVAN: Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Wednesday that the security forces had foiled a coup plot involving a senior cleric, the latest twist in his escalating conflict with the powerful Apostolic Church.
Pashinyan has been at loggerheads with the Church since its head, Catholicos Garegin II, began calling for his resignation following Armenia’s disastrous 2020 military defeat to arch-foe Azerbaijan over the then-disputed Karabakh region.
The dispute escalated after Baku seized full control of the region in 2023. Pashinyan started pushing an unpopular peace deal with Azerbaijan that would essentially renounce Yerevan’s claims to a region many Armenians see as their ancestral homeland.
“Law enforcement officers have foiled a large-scale and sinister plan by the ‘criminal-oligarchic clergy’ to destabilize the situation in the Republic of Armenia and seize power,” Pashinyan wrote on his Telegram channel early Wednesday.
The authorities arrested Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, a charismatic senior church figure trying to rally opposition to Pashinyan, accusing him of trying to mastermind the attempted coup.
“Since November 2024 (he) set himself the goal of changing power by means not permitted by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia,” said the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes.
The Apostolic Church wields considerable influence in Armenia, which in the fourth century became the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion.
Galstanyan, who leads the opposition movement Sacred Struggle, last year accused Pashinyan of ceding territory to Azerbaijan and led mass protests that ultimately failed to topple the prime minister.
His lawyer, Ruben Melikyan, condemned the case as politically motivated.
He told reporters the archbishop “acts independently” and said case materials showed no connection to the Church.
The Investigative Committee said it had arrested 14 people and launched criminal proceedings against 16 suspects after raids of more than 90 premises in a case related to Galstanyan’s Sacred Struggle movement.
Publishing photos of guns and ammunition found during a series of raids, it alleged that Galstanyan had “acquired the necessary means and tools to carry out terrorist acts and seize power.”
It also released covert recordings suggesting Galstanyan and his allies had called to execute officials, imprison opponents, and suppress any resistance by force.
“We either kill, or we die,” said a man, whose voice was said to resemble that of Galstanyan, in one of the clips.
Galstanyan’s legal team said it expected he would be “charged with terrorism and attempted seizure of power.”
The News.am website published footage showing Galstanyan leaving his house accompanied by masked police officers, who escorted him into a car and drove him away.
“Evil, listen carefully — whatever you do, you have very little time left. Hold on, we are coming,” he said, apparently addressing Pashinyan,
A crowd of supporters outside shouted, “Nikol is a traitor!“
The loss of Karabakh has divided Armenia, as Azerbaijan has demanded sweeping concessions in exchange for lasting peace.
Pashinyan earlier this month alleged Garegin II had an illegitimate child and, in an unprecedented challenge to the church, called on believers to remove him from office.
That triggered fierce opposition and calls for Pashinyan himself to be excommunicated.
Archbishop Galstanyan, a follower of Garegin II, catapulted to the forefront of Armenian politics in 2024 as he galvanized mass protests and sought to impeach Pashinyan.
The charismatic cleric temporarily stepped down from his religious post to challenge Pashinyan for prime minister — though as a dual Armenian-Canadian citizen, he is not eligible to hold the office.
Pashinyan’s grip on power, boosted by unpopular opposition parties and strong support in parliament, has so far remained unshaken.
A former journalist and opposition lawmaker, he came to power after leading street protests that escalated into a peaceful revolution in 2018.
French authorities raid SocGen offices for second day, source says
- The raids are part of a preliminary investigation opened in 2024
PARIS: French authorities searched Societe Generale’s offices in Paris and Luxembourg for a second day, as part of a tax fraud investigation, a judicial source said on Wednesday.
SocGen declined to comment.
The raids are part of a preliminary investigation opened in 2024 into the French bank, led by the prosecution office, for “tax fraud laundering,” “organized or aggravated tax fraud laundering” and “criminal conspiracy,” the same source said on Tuesday.
German prosecutor seeks arrest on terror charges of a Syrian man who allegedly stabbed 4
- Last month, the defendant attacked several people with a knife outside a restaurant in downtown Bielefeld in the early morning
- Prosecutors allege that the suspect joined the Daesh group in Syria in December 2014 at the latest in the city of Raqqa in Syria
BERLIN: Germany’s top prosecutor on Wednesday submitted a new arrest warrant based on terrorism allegations for a Syrian man who stabbed and critically injured four men outside a restaurant in the western city of Bielefeld last month.
The federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the accused, who has only been identified as Mahmoud M. in line with German privacy rules, “is urgently suspected of membership of a foreign terrorist organization, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.”
Last month, the defendant attacked several people with a knife outside a restaurant in downtown Bielefeld in the early morning. Four men were seriously injured.
Prosecutors allege that the suspect follows an Islamist-jihadist ideology. He joined the Daesh group in Syria in December 2014 at the latest in the city of Raqqa in Syria, they said.
After entering Germany, prosecutors said the accused decided to kill as many randomly selected people in Germany as possible. He did so ”in the name of a global ‘holy war’ and on behalf of Islamic State,” they added.
“To this end, in the early morning of May 18, 2025, he stabbed guests with knives in front of a restaurant in Bielefeld, critically injuring four people,” the prosecutors said.
The newly submitted arrest warrant replaces an arrest warrant issued by a Bielefeld local court on May 20, which had been obtained by the Bielefeld public prosecutor’s office. M. was arrested on May 19, and has been in custody since then. On May 20, the federal prosecutor’s office had taken over the investigation.
Among other things, the federal prosecutor’s office takes over terrorism-related cases from local prosecutors in Germany.
Eritrea seeks to end mandate of UN expert investigating abuses, document shows
- The Special Rapporteur is mandated to document violations in Eritrea
- The UN expert position was set up in 2012 by a group of African states
GENEVA: Eritrea is trying to cancel the mandate of a UN expert investigating alleged abuses, a document sent to the UN Human Rights Council showed, in a rare move that Western diplomats fear may set a precedent for states looking to escape scrutiny.
The Special Rapporteur, a position currently held by Sudanese human rights lawyer Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, is mandated to document violations in Eritrea, where civil society groups such as Human Rights Watch say impunity is widespread.
In a May report he described the situation as “critical,” highlighting cases of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and the use of lengthy national and military service terms that are driving thousands to flee.
Eritrea’s information ministry and its diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Eritrea, which has long opposed the mandate, sent a large delegation to champion its proposal at a UN meeting in Geneva on Monday and voiced opposition to investigations targeting individual countries’ records.
States like Sudan, Russia and Iran backed it while the EU and Britain were among those who opposed it in a polarized debate, diplomats said.
The UN expert position was set up in 2012 by a group of African states and has been renewed annually by the Geneva-based council in an effort led recently by the European Union. But this year, Eritrea beat them to it and instead tabled a rival motion to discontinue the mandate, the document showed.
While states subject to UN investigations often lobby against them or try to dilute them, rights experts say there has never before been a proposal to end a mandate put before the council in its nearly 20-year history and worry it could embolden states looking to block accountability efforts. In 2023, Ethiopia tried to end a mandate early, before backing off.
“The EU recalls that the principles of sovereignty and non-interference in a state’s internal affairs do not free states from their obligations under international human rights law,” the EU delegate said in a statement shared with Reuters, arguing that Eritrea’s lack of consent “should not be used to escape international scrutiny.”
Many of the Geneva-based council’s other probes are typically brought by Western countries, such as those on Russia and Sudan. Sometimes the evidence they gather is used by international prosecutors.
A vote is expected next month.
