London – Applicants from Nigeria, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka seeking to work or study in the UK could soon face tougher visa restrictions. Whitehall officials have indicated that a UK student visa crackdown is underway due to concerns that nationals from these countries are most likely to overstay their visas and subsequently claim asylum.
The UK government is collaborating with the National Crime Agency (NCA) to develop profiling models. These models aim to identify applicants from the specified countries who show a higher probability of later seeking asylum. This move comes as data reveals nearly 10,000 individuals who initially arrived in the UK legally on work or study visas were housed in taxpayer-funded accommodations, like hotels, at some point last year while claiming asylum.
Data Driving the UK Student Visa Crackdown
Home Office figures released in March pinpointed Pakistani, Nigerian, and Sri Lankan nationals as the most common groups among those who entered on valid visas but later required government-funded asylum accommodation. In response, the government plans to reduce the number of UK student visa holders who file for asylum. As part of this, officials will now scrutinize bank statements submitted during visa applications when assessing eligibility for asylum accommodation.
The Times reported that the Home Office is actively working to build an intelligence picture. This will help caseworkers spot patterns among individuals deemed most likely to abuse work and study visas as a route to claiming asylum. The UK student visa crackdown has specifically earmarked applicants from Pakistan, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka. The NCA is assisting in creating a system that could potentially reject visa applications from those fitting the high-risk profile.
Expert Questions Feasibility and Fairness
Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, offered an expert perspective. She questioned whether the government and NCA possess sufficiently accurate information to reliably predict who is likely to claim asylum after arrival. “The key question…is do they have the information to accurately decide who is likely to claim asylum after they arrive,” Sumption remarked. She added that the policy’s effectiveness hinges on whether identifiable patterns are clear enough to avoid “more arbitrary outcomes.”
When asked about potential legal challenges on discrimination grounds, Sumption noted that while she is not a lawyer, governments generally have considerable discretion when granting work and study visas to foreign nationals. While some legal avenues might exist, she acknowledged that governments are often permitted to discriminate on various grounds in such visa decisions.
By Abiodun Labi
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