UK may restrict student visa applications from Pakistan, Sri Lanka & Nigeria: Reports

LONDON: The government authorities of the United Kingdom have planned to restrict visa applications of students who might claim asylum in Britain, according to reports.

The asylum claimant students are mostly from Pakistan, Srilanka and Nigeria, according to reports

The action follows last week’s local elections in England, when voters enraged over issues including illegal immigration punished Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

Next week, the government is anticipated to release a white paper, a policy document that outlines its goals to lower net migration, which touched 728,000 in the year ending in June of last year.

According to a statement from the Home Office, “our next Immigration White Paper will lay out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.”

The Brexit referendum in 2016 was largely influenced by the high levels of legal migration that have long dominated British politics.

According to official figures, 16,000 of the 108,000 asylum seekers in Britain last year held student visas. The nationalities of people with student visas who later filed asylum claims are not broken down by the government.

However, the government said that after entering the country on a work, student, or visiting visa, individuals from Pakistan, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka were the most likely to apply for asylum in Britain.

Following the party’s dismal local election performance last week, a few Labour lawmakers encouraged the government to do more to adopt a more forceful stance on matters like reducing net migration.