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I make over N25million every year as bus driver in UK – Graduate [Video]
Saturday, 22 April 2023 14:09 Written by gistloverLincoln Bamfo, a Ghanaian living in the UK, asserted that his annual salary as a bus driver is over £45,000 (N25. 7 million).
He claimed to be a former Accra Polytechnic student who also attended Accra Technical University (ATU).
He was raised in Belgium, said the senior bus driver, and moved to London as an adult.
Lincoln claimed that the UK system has allowed him to lead a comfortable life and pay for his education.
The middle-aged man pointed out that the UK’s transportation sector values labor.
He went on to say that in Ghana, drivers barely train after earning their license, whereas the UK system obliged him to attend refresher courses or a week of training every five years.
Nigerian students in the UK, others risk deportation
Thursday, 13 April 2023 02:02 Written by gistlover- Braverman is moving to cut that to just six months, after which they have to have a skilled job that makes them eligible for a work visa or leave the UK.
- As part of that, she wants to reduce the number of international students who can apply for a graduate post-study work visa
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.gistlover.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/uk-students.jpg?resize=640%2C450&ssl=1)
Nigerian students, and other immigrant students in the UK, are facing a high risk of deportation after the completion of their studies.
This fresh development follows a new plan by the country’s Home Secretary, Suella Braverman. At the moment, those travelling to study in Britain can stay for up to 2 years after completing their courses.
However, Braverman is moving to cut that to just six months, after which they have to have a skilled job that makes them eligible for a work visa or leave the UK.
Nonetheless, reports have it that the Department for Education is said to resist Braverman’s plan.
According to the report, the development is the latest twist in a long-running row over foreign student numbers.
Braverman has committed to cutting immigration and ‘substantially reducing’ the number of unskilled foreign workers coming to Britain, from 239,000 to the tens of thousands.
As part of that, she wants to reduce the number of international students who can apply for a graduate post-study work visa, which allows any student who has passed their degree to remain and work in the UK for at least two years.
But education officials fear this will make the UK less attractive to foreign students, who pay far more than UK students for their courses and are a significant source of income for universities
UK High Court Frowns at Nnamdi Kanu’s Rendition to Nigeria
Friday, 24 March 2023 10:19 Written by Tori![](https://www.tori.ng/userfiles/image/2023/mar/24/kanu.jpg)
Why thousands of people who thought they were British could lose their citizenship
Tuesday, 14 March 2023 07:30 Written by theconversation
Alice Welsh, University of York
Confusion has arisen around the British government’s own understanding of its citizenship laws, following a judgment by the UK’s high court. In a ruling handed down on January 20 2023, in the case of Roehrig v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Mr Justice Eyre determined that the restrictive approach applied by the Home Office since 2000 to how the children of EU nationals automatically acquire citizenship is the correct interpretation of the law.
The case in question concerns the nationality of Antoine Lucas Roehrig, who was born on October 20 2000 in the UK. His mother is a French national who had lived and worked in the UK under EU law for the five years before he was born. Roehrig claimed he acquired British citizenship at birth by virtue of section 1(1)(b) of the British Nationality Act 1981 because his mother was settled in the UK at the time he was born. The Home Office disputed that his mother met the act’s criteria for being settled and refused his application for a British passport.
Eyre’s ruling in favour of the Home Office hinges on the government’s interpretation of how the legal definition of being “settled” in the UK applied to EU nationals. It could upend the lives of many thousands of people, who have always believed that they were British.
![Two children eating ice-creams with a woman in the background.](https://images.theconversation.com/files/512208/original/file-20230224-1582-xbycv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip)
Indefinite leave to remain
Before 1983, anyone born in the UK automatically acquired British citizenship. After that, when the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force, those born in the UK would only be considered British citizens if at least one of their parents were either a British citizen themselves or “settled” in the UK at the time of the child’s birth.
For 17 years, the Home Office deemed EU nationals exercising free movement rights in the UK to be settled and their UK-born children, thus, British. But on October 2 2000, the Home Office changed the rules. In order to be deemed “settled”, EU nationals now had to apply for and be granted indefinite leave to remain.
The problem is that many EU nationals did not apply for indefinite leave to remain, simply because they did not need it to enter and reside in the UK. Why apply for something you apparently don’t need?
The question posed by Roehrig’s case, therefore, is whether EU nationals without indefinite leave to remain could be considered “settled”. To answer this question, the high court had to determine whether EU nationals met the definition, as specified in section 50 of the British Nationality Act, of someone residing in the UK without any immigration law restrictions on the period that they could stay.
EU law, which had direct effect in the UK until Brexit, effectively created a conditional residence for EU nationals, who could reside in the UK for as long as they remained a “qualified person”. These residence rights were usually granted on the basis of being in employment. In certain circumstances, someone might be eligible through being unable to work due to illness or job loss, through living off personal savings, or through relying on a family member.
Eyre found that this conditional residence had the same effect as an immigration law restriction on the period for which EU nationals could remain in the UK. In other words, he judged that being a “qualified person” under EU free movement law did not mean you can now be deemed to have been “settled”.
This is a surprising interpretation of the law. Until Brexit, and the subsequent requirement to apply for the EU settlement scheme, many EU nationals were able to reside in the UK on the basis of EU law for decades without applying for indefinite leave to remain. They were treated as settled, and their children treated as British.
The impact of this judgment
Importantly, new rules, like those the Home Office introduced on October 2 2000, do not actually change the law. They simply alter the interpretation of the law and how to implement it.
Eyre has decided that the Home Office’s restrictive approach to British citizenship, as applied since October 2 2000, is the correct interpretation of the British Nationality Act. It follows that the previous interpretation, as implemented between 1983 and October 2 2000, was incorrect. This means that the Home Office will have mistakenly granted British citizenship to many people born during this time period to parents who, like Roehrig’s mother, were “qualified persons” under EU free movement law.
Conversely, if Roehrig appeals the judgment, and is successful, it is the restrictive approach the Home Office has taken since 2000 that will be found to be unlawful. The interpretation of the law, as implemented before October 2000, will have been the correct one. In this instance, the Home Office will have mistakenly denied British citizenship to many people born since 2000 to EU nationals who should have been considered to be “settled” in the UK.
Given that the government has greatly underestimated the number of EU nationals living in the UK before Brexit, it is not unreasonable to expect the number of people who could be affected, either way, to be in the tens of thousands.
The secretary of state’s submissions to the high court provided reassurance that the Home Office has accepted “as a matter of policy and fairness” that affected children born before October 2 2000 are British. But this is simply a matter of policy. It provides no legal certainty.
As immigration barrister Colin Yeo warns, the Home Office has nullified citizenship before, relying on the confusing logic that it was never actually held if acquired through error or Home Office mistake. At present, the policy to recognise the British citizenship of those born before October 2 2000 has been paused.
And what of those who have gone on to have their own children, thinking they had passed on their British citizenship? Guaranteeing protection for the affected group could be achieved through legislation which retroactively recognises their acquisition of British citizenship. For now, though, thousands of “possibly British” people with EU national parents are left facing great uncertainty.
Alice Welsh, Research fellow, University of York
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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What Denmark’s dead hedgehogs tell us about their lives – and how we can help them
Tuesday, 28 February 2023 02:11 Written by theconversation
Sophie Lund Rasmussen, University of Oxford
The European hedgehog is in decline all over Europe. In Britain, the species is already deemed vulnerable to extinction having seen its population fall by at least 46% in the past 13 years to an estimated 500,000 animals.
I have researched what is causing their disappearance for a decade. This has involved several research projects at the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit focused on optimising conservation strategies to protect wild hedgehogs.
One of these projects – the “Danish Hedgehog Project” – involved more than 400 volunteers collecting 697 dead hedgehogs from all over Denmark, where my research is based. My colleagues and I then studied how long these hedgehogs typically lived for and why they died.
The method for ageing a dead hedgehog is similar to counting growth rings on trees. When hedgehogs hibernate over winter, their calcium metabolism slows down, which shows as a line of arrested growth in their jawbones. This allowed us to determine how old 388 of these hedgehogs were when they died.
![Eight images of stained sections of hedgehog jaws showing year rings.](https://images.theconversation.com/files/512408/original/file-20230227-20-t2s8nz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip)
We found the world’s oldest scientifically-confirmed European hedgehogs. The oldest, called Thorvald, was 16 years old and surpassed the previous record by seven years. Thorvald died in 2016 after being attacked by a dog, a sadly rather common cause of death for hedgehogs, but alongside the other hedgehogs we studied, he now contributes important knowledge on the mysterious lives of these animals.
The state of Denmark’s hedgehogs
A few more surprisingly old hedgehogs, aged ten, 11 and 13 years, were also collected. But on average, the Danish hedgehogs we studied only lived to around the age of two.
The male hedgehogs tended to live longer than females. Males lived to 2.1 years on average compared to just 1.6 years for the average female. This finding is uncommon in mammals and is likely caused by the fact that it is simply easier being a male hedgehog.
Hedgehogs are not territorial, so males rarely fight, and females raise their offspring alone. The high fitness cost of raising offspring alone may partly explain why the risk of death for female hedgehogs increases with age compared with a constant risk of death for male hedgehogs throughout their life.
Over half (216) of the hedgehogs had been killed when crossing roads. These deaths, 70% of which were males, also peaked in July during the mating season. Male hedgehogs tend to have larger home ranges than females and as they expand their range during the mating season, they will frequently cross roads. Research that I co-authored in 2019 found that the home range size of male hedgehogs in suburban areas around Copenhagen in Denmark increased fivefold during the mating season.
Of the animals not killed by road traffic, 22.2% (86) died in wildlife rehabilitation centres after having been found by the public either sick or injured and a further 21.6% (84) died from natural causes in the wild.
![A person with blue gloves holding a dead hedgehog.](https://images.theconversation.com/files/512406/original/file-20230227-20-pnggpe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip)
Low genetic diversity
We also investigated the impact of inbreeding on the life expectancy of European hedgehogs. My previous research found that the Danish hedgehog population has low genetic diversity, indicating a high degree of inbreeding. Low genetic diversity can reduce the fitness of an individual animal and may lead to several potentially lethal hereditary conditions.
Inbreeding can occur when hedgehogs are restricted in their search for suitable mates. The likelihood of inbreeding increases as their habitats become fragmented by roads, buildings, fences and railway tracks, and as population decline restricts the pool of potential mates.
Surprisingly, we found no association between the degree of inbreeding and age at death in our hedgehogs. This is interesting, as there is a general lack of knowledge on the effects of inbreeding in wildlife.
![A woman looking into a microscope with a hedgehog jawbone printed on a computer screen in front of her.](https://images.theconversation.com/files/512425/original/file-20230227-18-sbkd1w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip)
How you can help
Hedgehogs are increasingly inhabiting areas that are occupied by humans. But our study reveals that humans are the major drivers behind the decline of hedgehogs.
Many hedgehogs will only live long enough to take part in one or two breeding seasons. Yet our discovery of Thorvald and several other old hedgehogs suggests that their ability to avoid dangers such as cars and predators will improve if they manage to survive a minimum of two years.
There are several steps that you can take to help hedgehogs navigate the dangers they face. Hedgehog Street, a conservation campaign jointly funded by People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), offers some useful advice.
For example, removing barriers between our gardens to create hedgehog highways will allow hedgehogs to move freely between gardens in search for food, nest sites and mates. This may reduce the need for hedgehogs to cross roads so often.
Making sure our gardens are hedgehog-friendly is another option. Log and leaf piles, or purpose-designed boxes called hedgehog houses provide safe and secure sites for breeding and nesting. Ensuring your garden has plenty of greenery will also attract insects, slugs, earthworms and snails for hedgehogs to feed on.
But it’s important to remove anything from your garden that can harm hedgehogs. This includes poisons, netting, garden tools, aggressive dogs, deep holes and steep edges around pools or ponds.
Any improvement in our knowledge of hedgehogs in the wild will also be important. The Zoological Society of London surveys Greater London’s hedgehog populations through its London Hogwatch project. And the BHPS funds the Hedgehog Friendly Campus initiative which offers universities, colleges and primary schools awards for completing actions to help hedgehogs thrive on their campus.
The BHPS and the PTES’ latest report on the state of Britain’s hedgehogs indicates that the decline in UK hedgehog populations may be stabilising in the urban areas. This could be due to the efforts of the public that have been inspired by these campaigns.
The fact that Thorvald lived to the age of 16 offers hope for the future of European hedgehogs. If we work together, we can save this charismatic species.
Sophie Lund Rasmussen, Postdoctoral fellow, University of Oxford
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
How Prince William Physically Attacked Me – Prince Harry Makes Stunning Claim
Thursday, 05 January 2023 15:48 Written by ToriAs homelessness grows, its stark impact on health is becoming clearer across Europe
Monday, 26 December 2022 22:19 Written by theconversation
Rosa Gómez Trenado, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Jaime Barrio Cortes, Universidad Camilo José Cela
The latest data compiled by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics show that the number of homeless people has grown by 25% in Spain in the last ten years. This social problem has gone from affecting 22,900 people in 2012 to more than 28,500 people in 2022. The average age of people in this situation in Spain is 42.7 years.
Numbers do not look much better across Europe. The European Parliament highlights the precarious living situation of more than 700,000 people facing homelessness every day (and night) across Europe. There has been a 70% increase in just a decade.
Beyond the basic need for shelter, housing is key to the development of a life project. That is why it is a fundamental human right.
Not having a permanent place to live increases inequalities in the access to basic citizenship rights. This includes the right to health care.
How does one become homeless?
Many factors can lead to homelessness. Sometimes they are individual or family related, such as divorces, periods of mournings, mental illness, domestic violence or substance abuse. Structural factors are also involved, such as difficulty to access affordable housing, unemployment (or precarious employment) and discrimination.
In addition, the European Federation of National Organisations working with the Homeless (FEANTSA) stresses that institutional factors such as a lack of coordination between services or an inadequately structured welfare system may be behind homelessness.
Homeless people live almost two decades less
According to a Polish study, homeless people have an average life expectancy of 17.5 years less than the rest of the population. They have also been found to have between 2 and 50 times more physical health problems, and their living conditions lead to multiple or chronic illnesses. Mental illness, addictions and communicable infectious diseases are particularly prevalent in this group.
The main problem detected is that most homeless people do not have access to primary health care services, do not have a family doctor, and are usually treated through emergency services when they reach a serious or extreme situation. The direct consequence is an average age of death that has been estimated at 52 years for women and 56 for men. An Irish study based on homeless people in Dublin reduced it further: 36 years for women and 44 for men.
This is especially tragic when we learn that around one in three deaths of homeless people are due to causes that could be avoided with timely and effective health care.
In particular, cancer is the second most common cause of death among the homeless population. Cancer mortality is twice as high among homeless people, compared to the general adult population in high-income countries. This is not only because of lack of treatment, but also because these individuals often do not have access to prevention and early detection, which is essential to increase the chances of survival, reduce morbidity and reduce the cost of therapy. In addition, they are more exposed to chronic stress and poor nutrition.
![](https://images.theconversation.com/files/497908/original/file-20221129-18-9tp21c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip)
The poorest live shorter lives and get sicker
If homeless people are not to be hit by cancer, it is essential to make them visible to public systems. With this aim in mind, several Spanish, Greek, Austrian and British institutions have recently launched the EU-funded pilot project Cancerless together with FEANTSA.
Until the end of 2023, they will work with 1,500 homeless people in Madrid, London, Athens and Vienna, trying to increase their capacity to make better and more informed decisions about their own health. This involves, among other things, running workshops on healthy habits to prevent cancer and including all homeless people in screening programmes such as mammograms, cervical or colonoscopies.
Combining health education and social support is the best way to ensure that homeless people are not excluded from the process of early detection of cancer through prevention. To this end, the pilot activates a coordination figure between the social services system and the primary health care system called Health Navigator. This model implements actions to overcome health inequalities by working individually with those affected both in centres for the homeless and in health care centres.
The ultimate goal is to achieve health equity, i.e. that people can develop their full health potential regardless of their social position or other circumstances determined by social factors.
Rosa Gómez Trenado, Trabajadora Social. Investigadora en la FIIBAP. Profesora de Grado y Máster en la Facultad de Trabajo Social, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Jaime Barrio Cortes, Médico de familia investigador en Fundación para la Investigación e Innovación Biosanitaria en Atención Primaria (FIIBAP). Director del Máster en Salud Escolar y docente en Facultad de Salud, Universidad Camilo José Cela
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.