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The British government is handing out special visas for “global talent” to foreign drag queens, a Daily Telegraph investigation has revealed.
The “global talent” visa scheme allows recipients and their dependents to stay in the UK for up to five years, and is supposedly intended to allow the very best “creative talent” to come to the country.
Applicants for the scheme have their artistic merit judged by the Arts Council before their visas are signed off by the Home Office.
According to the Telegraph, drag queens have been among the recipients, as well as Nigerian rappers and “poets.”
“Examples of the global talents who have come to the UK have emerged amid growing debate about the visa route for creatives, and a 178 per cent increase in annual applications since 2019,” the Telegraph reports.
One of the recipients was Kübra Uzun, a transgender drag artist and “LGBTQIA+ rights activist” from Turkey, whose stage name is Q-BRA.
Another transgender drag artist called Akis Ka received a “global talent” visa.
A significant number of recipients now come from Nigeria. Applications from the African country have risen 2,225% since 2019.
Most Nigerian recipients sing in evangelical churches in the UK.
Other nationalities that have submitted large numbers of applications include Russia (725), China (492), Australia (233), and India (160).
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has called for an “urgent” review of the “obviously nonsensical” program.
“The idea that drag artists represent global talent is frankly laughable. These visas should be for research scientists, IT professionals, medics, people working at the cutting edge of finance or others who will add value to the economy.
“Allowing these visas to be used for drag queens is patently ridiculous and the government should urgently get a grip.”
The Home Office has ringfenced visa application routes for individuals with specific skills, creating a temporary list of “shortage” occupations.
This list includes poets and bloggers, roles that come under the visa route for the broad category of “authors, writers and translators”.
