The United Kingdom Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, has vowed that she will make it more difficult for immigrants to get British citizenship.

While making one of her first policy announcements since she became leader, Badenoch said immigrants would only be able to apply for citizenship after being in the UK for 15 years.

Badenoch also declared that indefinite leave to remain, which paves the way for citizenship, should not be granted to those who have criminal records or who had claimed benefits or social housing.


According to her, citizenship was a privilege, not just a right and should only be for those with a “meaningful connection to the UK”.

Obtaining indefinite leave to remain, ILR gives people the right to live, work and study in the UK.

It is usually possible for a person to apply for ILR if they have worked in the UK for at least five years, although it can be two or three years if they came to the UK on particular visas.

India’s foreign minister threatened a “strong crackdown” on illegal migration on Thursday, a day after a US military airplane flew back 104 migrants as part of President Donald Trump’s overhaul of immigration.

Thousands of unregistered migrants have been arrested across the United States since Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

Trump’s flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling immigration to the United States is estimated to impact 11 million undocumented migrants.

“It is the obligation of all countries to take back their nationals if they are found to be living illegally abroad,” Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told parliament.

Chief of the US Border Patrol Michael W. Banks said the return of “illegal aliens to India” marked “the farthest deportation flight yet using military transport”.

Banks included in social media post on Wednesday a video showing a shuffling line of shackled migrants boarding military aircraft.

New Delhi was “engaging the US government to ensure that the returning deportees are not mistreated in any manner during the flight”, Jaishankar said.

But he noted the “process of deportation is not a new one”, and that the United States had expelled more than 15,000 Indians since 2009, almost half of them between 2019-2024.

“Our focus should be on crackdown — strong crackdown — on the illegal migration industry, while taking steps to ease visas for the legitimate traveller,” Jaishankar said.

India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and enjoys world-beating GDP growth, but hundreds of thousands of its citizens still leave the country each year seeking better opportunities abroad.

While its diaspora spans the globe, the United States remains the destination of choice.

New Delhi is pressing for a more liberal US visa regime for India’s highly skilled pool of engineers, doctors, and other experts.

Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — whom critics both accuse of authoritarian tendencies — enjoyed warm relations during his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021.

Indian media have widely reported Modi is likely to visit Washington next week, where he is expected to meet with Trump.

AFP

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday seeking to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, in his latest move targeting transgender people since returning to office.

“From now on women’s sports will be only for women,” Trump said before he signed the order at the White House, surrounded by dozens of children and female athletes.

“With this executive order the war on women’s sports is over.”

Top Republicans including US House Speaker Mike Johnson and firebrand Congresswoman Marjorie Green were among those in the audience to watch the signing ceremony.

“We will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat our women and our girls,” Trump added to applause and cheers.

Trump’s order allows US government agencies to deny funds to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams.

“If you let men take over women’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated… and risk your federal funding,” Trump said.

Trump said he would now push the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to change its rules on transgender athletes before the 2028 Los Angeles games.

He said he had ordered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “make it clear” to the IOC that “we want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.”

Trump added that he had directed Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem to deny visa applications to “made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes to try and get into the Games.”

Republican Trump has repeatedly targeted gender non-conforming people in a blitz of orders pushing his radical right-wing agenda at the start of his second term.

At his inauguration speech, Trump announced that US government policy would only recognize two genders, male and female — ending the practice of providing a third gender option in some settings.

Days later Trump signed an order to rid the military of what he called “transgender ideology” and effectively ban transgender troops. He also issued an order to restrict gender transition procedures for people under age 19.

The slew of actions comes despite the fact that transgender people make up only a small minority of the US population.

During the 2024 election campaign he repeatedly hammered Democrats on the divisive issue of transgender rights during the 2024 election campaign, capitalizing on a broader culture war over the topic.

One of Trump’s most successful attack lines against his election rival Kamala Harris — “Kamala Harris is for they/them. President Trump his for you” — targeted her support for trans rights.

Trump also targeted her one-time support for gender reassignment operations for prisoners.

His executive order on Wednesday comes after the Republican-led House of Representatives in January passed a bill severely restricting transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

As transgender people have become a more visible presence in the United States, sparking questions around gender norms and fairness, many conservatives have rallied around women’s sports.

AFP