Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the move is part of a wider campaign to “clamp down” on international students who claim asylum after their visas expire.
The United Kingdom (UK) government has announced it will “for the first time proactively contact about 130,000 students and their families, warning them they will be forced to leave the UK if they have no legal right to remain,” The Guardian reports.
Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the move is part of a wider campaign to “clamp down” on international students who claim asylum after their visas expire.
In a separate report, the BBC noted that tens of thousands of foreign students are being contacted by the government and told they would be removed if they overstay their visas.
The full message to be sent out reads: “If you submit an asylum claim that lacks merit, it will be swiftly and robustly refused. Any request for asylum support will be assessed against destitution criteria. If you do not meet the criteria, you will not receive support. If you have no legal right to remain in the UK, you must leave. If you don’t, we will remove you.”
Cooper also confirmed the suspension of new applications for a scheme that allows refugees to bring family members to the UK, claiming smuggler gangs are exploiting it to advertise small boat crossings.
The Tories, however, argue the changes do not go far enough, while the Refugee Council has warned the measures would “only push more desperate people into the arms of smugglers.”
The University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady condemned the campaign as an “attack on international students” that has “very little to do with visa overstays and everything to do with apeing Reform.”
In May, SaharaReporters reported that the United Kingdom was preparing to tighten visa restrictions on citizens of Nigeria, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka as part of wider reforms aimed at curbing immigration abuses.
Quoting The Times, the report noted that the British Home Office had identified nationals from these countries as having some of the highest rates of visa overstaying, with many later seeking asylum.
A Home Office spokesperson said, “Our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.”
They added: “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.
“Under our plan for change, our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.”
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