Record number of migrants claim asylum after arriving as skilled workers
Some 4,394 legal migrants who came to the UK in 2022 with visas to work or study had claimed asylum within three years of arriving.
That was almost triple the number two years previously when just 1,518 migrants with visas had claimed asylum within three years of arriving, according to the Home Office figures.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is preparing to unveil new restrictions to prevent migrants using study and work visas as a backdoor into Britain's asylum system.
Being granted asylum enables migrants to stay in the UK permanently whereas work and study visas are only temporary. Rejected asylum seekers can prolong their stay – sometimes indefinitely – by making repeated appeals to frustrate their deportation.
According to the Home Office data, there were some 18,442 migrants living in the UK in 2024 who had switched from work, study or other visas and were either seeking asylum or had been granted refugee status. This was double the number a decade ago and up from a mere 151 in 2006.
Of the 18,442, one in five were Pakistani, with 3,982 of them having gone down the asylum route despite arriving with a legal visa at some point. The vast majority – 3,603 – had arrived as students. This was followed by Afghans (2,097), Iranians (1,685), Libyans (1,367) and Bangladeshis (1,463).
One of the cases involved a Pakistani man who first arrived on a student visa but was granted refugee status by an immigration tribunal and allowed to stay in the UK despite being convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017.
The man, now aged 53 and given anonymity by the judge, arrived in the UK in 2006 as a student. He was initially granted leave to remain only until the end of that year, but he overstayed his visa and lived in the UK illegally for 11 years.
Another Pakistani, Nadra Almas, first arrived in the UK in 2004 on a student visa, valid for five months. She was served with a removal notice in 2008 but won a 16-year legal battle to secure refugee status by claiming she was a Christian who would face persecution if deported back to Pakistan.
Under Labour's plans to crack down on such abuses of the system, work and study visas will be rejected for individuals who fit the profile of someone who is judged likely to claim asylum and comes from a country with high rates of people switching to claim asylum.
There will also be restrictions on asylum claims from individuals switching from work and study visas where conditions in their home country have not materially changed since their arrival.
Ms Cooper is also planning to introduce measures to bar migrants who came to the UK on a work or study visa from claiming taxpayer-funded accommodation.
Asylum seekers can claim accommodation and other financial support if they are destitute or likely to become destitute. However, work and study visa holders must prove they have sufficient funds to sustain themselves while in the UK.
Officials will use the bank statements submitted by visa holders as part of their initial application when deciding whether to grant them asylum accommodation. This will make it significantly harder for asylum seekers to claim free accommodation if they came to the UK on a visa.
A Home Office source said: 'We need to impose further restrictions to cut the number of people applying for asylum to extend their stay because their visa has run out.'
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