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Care worker fears being parted from unborn child and family after Home Office ‘go home’ letters
A heavily pregnant care worker in Scotland has received a Home Office letter telling her husband and six-year-old daughter to leave the UK, while she is allowed to stay. The Guardian reports that similar letters have been sent to children as young as five, and that new visa restrictions are prompting many migrant care workers to consider leaving the UK.
A heavily pregnant care worker living legally in Scotland fears she could be separated from her unborn baby after the Home Office sent her husband and young daughter letters telling them to leave the UK. Sachintha Warnakulasuriya, 36, is due to have a planned caesarean section on 16 June. She says the letter has left her so stressed that she does not know what will happen to her family.
"I was thinking that giving birth would be a happy and relaxed time for me," Warnakulasuriya told The Guardian. "I saw the article in the Guardian about the family being sent 'go home' letters but never thought the same thing would happen to me. Then on 4 June we got a letter from the Home Office saying my husband and six-year-old daughter have to leave the UK but I can stay. I do not know what will happen to the baby."
Coverage comparison
The Guardian reports that this is part of a wider pattern. The newspaper says it has seen five letters sent to children by the Home Office telling them they must leave the UK, and a sixth letter sent to a woman who is six months pregnant, telling her she must leave her husband and return to her country. The children in these cases have parents on care worker visas, which until March 2024 had allowed them to bring partners or children with them to the UK.
The Guardian's coverage focuses on the emotional impact on families, with direct quotes from those affected. It highlights that children as young as five are being told to leave the UK even though they live legally in the country and their parents have permission to remain. The tone is critical of the government's policy, which the newspaper describes as a "visa clampdown."
Key claims
A heavily pregnant mother, Sachintha Warnakulasuriya, received a letter from the Home Office telling her husband and daughter to leave the UK, while she can stay. Warnakulasuriya has a visa permitting her to work in the UK as a care worker, and her husband and daughter are legally entitled to live in the UK as her dependents.
The family has been living in the UK legally and paying taxes. Warnakulasuriya told The Guardian: "We pay our taxes and do not take anything from the state. We are trying to contribute our services to the UK and do everything legally."
The government has introduced new visa restrictions for care workers. The Guardian reports that from March 2024, care workers have no longer been allowed to bring their partners or children with them to the UK, and a ban on overseas recruitment of care workers was introduced from July 2025.
Children as young as five are being told to leave the UK by the Home Office. The Guardian has seen five letters sent to children, and a sixth to a pregnant woman, all telling them they must leave the UK or leave their spouse.
The Home Office estimated in 2023 that about 120,000 family members were in the UK, joining 100,000 care worker applicants. This was the basis for the government's clampdown on family visas for care workers.
The children who received letters in recent weeks arrived in the UK before the various bans and restrictions came into force.
The Guardian reports that new proposals to extend the period before migrant care workers can settle in the UK could lead to a mass exodus of this group of workers. It cites a survey in which 69% of migrant care workers said they would consider leaving the UK if a 15-year rule comes into force.
The Home Office has not been quoted in The Guardian's coverage, and the government's perspective on the policy is not included in the material provided.
How this outlet told it
The Guardian — World
Framing: Emotional appeal of a pregnant mother's story — Critical of the government's policy
Facts Included:
A heavily pregnant mother received a letter from the Home Office telling her husband and daughter to leave the UK
The mother has a visa permitting her to work in the UK as a care worker
The family has been living in the UK legally and paying taxes
The government has introduced new visa restrictions for care workers
The Home Office has sent letters to children as young as five telling them to leave the UK
AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimA heavily pregnant mother received a letter from the Home Office telling her husband and daughter to leave the UK.