The UK Government has announced a significant change to immigration rules which will allow some asylum-seeking doctors, nurses and other health professionals to work in the UK.
It follows a campaign led by a national coalition of partners, including academics from The University of Manchester, and legal representatives from Garden Court Chambers and Bhatt Murphy Solicitors, who challenged the previous policy framework.
The rules, which affect asylum seekers who have waited 12 months or more for a decision on their initial claim, come into effect on 26 March 2026.
The previous policy restricted asylum seekers to occupations on the Immigration Salary List, excluding most health professions, including doctors and nurses.
One of the leading voices in the campaign was the Refugee and Asylum Seekers Centre for Healthcare Professionals Education (REACHE), directed by, Dr Aisha Awan, a Senior Clinical Lecturer at The University of Manchester and Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation.
Displaced clinicians at REACHE receive specialist language, clinical and acculturation training alongside strong pastoral support, enabling them to secure regulatory registration and safely return to practice within the NHS.
The policy change follows legal proceedings which highlighted that highly qualified, NHS-ready clinicians were unable to work in shortage specialties despite clear workforce need.
Dr Awan said: “As we continue to witness increasing displacement of people by conflict and global events, we must ethically address that doctors, nurses and health professionals becoming deskilled is a huge loss to humanity.
“Alongside being economically counterproductive, undermining NHS workforce capacity and negatively impacting mental health and integration.
“At a time of increasingly hostile rhetoric around migration, it’s been important to show the impressively positive impacts of this programme on the NHS and patients.
“I’m immensely proud to be part of our University which supports this sort of positive and impactful change. Our success demonstrates how evidence, persistence and coalition-building can influence systems, no matter how big the resistance to change.”
Undergraduate students from the University’s school of Law, Medicine, Computer Sciences and Languages were involved in the Interfaculty Service Learning project, attending the judicial review hearings.
Maria-Ioana Dicu a second year computer science undergraduate, was one of the undergraduates to observe how research, evidence and advocacy connect within real-world policy debates.
She said: “These doctors resilience and desire to help others was incredibly powerful and their fight to practice shows the impact you can have if you step outside your comfort zone, even against all the odds.”
“The University of Manchester is a public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester City Centre on Oxford Road.”
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