As many as 30,000 overseas nurses will be facing the axe under British Prime Minister David Cameron’s new immigration laws. According to Mr Cameron’s new immigration laws, workers recruited from outside of the European Union (EU) since 2011 and earning less than 35,000 pounds annually (USD 55,503) even after six years of employment will have to return home. The laws will be enforced from 2017.

Indian staff nurse, Mr Sandeep Duggani, 29, is also a victim of the new immigration laws, the Mirror online reported. Mr Duggani, who started working in an Intensive Care Unit at the National Health Services (NHS) in 2011, gets 25,000 pounds annually. Mr Duggani did a nursing degree in Belgaum city, in the Indian state of Karnataka, and will be on his way home in 2017. His wife Ms Pratika, also a qualified nurse from India, is just starting her NHS career and would be hit by the new rules in 2021. He said it would be impossible to increase his pay to 35,000 pounds before the cut-off date.

“It was always my dream when I came to this country to work in the NHS. My father is really very proud that I work in the NHS, because in India, the NHS is very famous,” Mr Duggani said adding that, despite the new rules, NHS trusts are still recruiting nurses from India. “It is very sad. I have done all these training courses and now, after six years, I have to go back. But it’s not just me. There are thousands of nurses going to be affected by this,” he added.