London (TDI): The UK government may restrict visa applications from students living in nations — including Pakistan — that are considered most likely to claim asylum in a move designed to bring down annual net migration.
The move comes after Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party was crushed in local elections in England last week by voters angry over issues, including illegal immigration.
The government is likely to publish a policy document next week, known as a white paper, which will detail how the British government plans to reduce net migration, which reached 728,000 people in the year to June 2024.
The Home Office said in a statement, “Our upcoming Immigration document will provide comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.”
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High levels of legal migration have long dominated UK’s political debate and were one of the major drivers for the Brexit referendum in 2016.
Out of the 108,000 people who claimed asylum in UK last year, sixteen thousand had student visas, according to government data.
The government does not provide a breakdown of the nationalities of those who had student visas, who went on to claim asylum.
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But the government said people from Nigeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were the most likely to claim asylum in UK after arriving on a work, student, or a visitor visa.
In the aftermath of the party’s poor local election results last week, some Labour members of parliament pressed the government to do more to take a more decisive approach on matters such as bringing down net migration.
