Migrant workers living in UK sending £8BILLION a year back to their home countries
Thousands of workers who come here are transferring chunks of their wages back home to keep their relatives in school, a UN report found
MIGRANT workers are sending a total of £8billion a year back to their home countries, a fresh report has found.
Thousands of workers who come to the UK are transferring large chunks of their wages home to keep their relatives in school, a UN report concluded.
The cash is mostly sent back to Nigeria, India and Pakistan, but hundreds of millions are also transferred back to Poland, China, Kenya, and the Philippines too.
However, Unesco's annual report on education slammed banks and finance firms for charging rip-off fees to do so.
It says that wiring money should only cost around three per cent of the total amount, but the global average is seven per cent and some can reach as high as 20 per cent.
"Companies should not be allowed to continue skimming off so much of the money that migrants are sending back home," said Manos Antoninis, director of the Global Education Monitoring report.
"Such transaction costs are highest for the poorest migrants."
The money is used to keep kids in school, and slashes child labour.
The £8bn compares to around £13billion which the UK spends on overseas aid.
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Recent changes to our aid budget means that now aid can now be spent on richer countries too - in the event of extreme circumstances like hurricanes.
It is a big win for Ms Mordaunt after a lengthy campaign to change international rules that govern what counts as foreign aid spending.
But the International Development Secretary wants to loosen the strict rules further by allowing countries who are just above the threshold to qualify too.
Currently Britain can only spend aid money on countries that have an average income per head of below £9,400.
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