The UK government plans to crack down on visa applications from nationalities that overstay and claim asylum.
According to BBC, the Home Office has decided to restrict visas of people from countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nigeria who come legally to the UK for work or stay and then claim asylum.
A Home Office spokesperson said, “To tackle abuse by foreign nationals who arrive on work and study visas and go on to claim asylum, we are building intelligence on the profile of these individuals to identify them earlier and faster.”
“We keep the visa system under constant review, and where we detect trends which may undermine our immigration rules, we will not hesitate to take action. Our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system," the spokesperson added.
Which nationalities overstay in the UK?
It is not clear at the moment which nationalities most often overstay in the country, as the Home Office has not released that data since 2020 due to a review into the accuracy of the figures.
However, as per the latest figures, more than 108,000 people claimed asylum in the UK in 2024, the highest number since the beginning of records in 1979.
The most, 10,542, asylum claims were made by Pakistanis. Some 2,862 Sri Lankan nationals and 2,841 Nigerian nationals also claimed asylum in the same period.
The figures for 2023/24 also show that 732,285 international students came to the UK, with most from India (107,480) and China (98,400).
Notably, full details of the new immigration plans will be published in the white paper later in May.
