The UK has moved to halt most new student visas and work permits from Sudan, Cameroon, Peru and Myanmar with immediate effect, as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood accuses some migrants of 'seeking to exploit our generosity' by using study and work routes as a backdoor to asylum.
The decision follows a sharp rise in foreign nationals arriving on student and worker visas and then lodging asylum claims once in Britain. According to figures cited by the Home Office, the number of students from the four named countries who went on to seek refugee status has almost sextupled since 2021. Many of those applicants, ministers say, are then being supported in asylum hotels at public expense.
