Bangladeshis and Indians applying to work or study in the UK are among nationalities that could face Home Office restrictions over suspicions they are most likely to overstay and claim asylum, The i Paper can reveal.
Under plans first reported by The Times in May, the Government could reject visas for individuals who fit the profile of someone who may go on to claim asylum and are from countries with high rates of asylum claims in the UK.
The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, was said to be concerned about the sharp increase in migrants on work and study visas who go on to claim asylum and are living in Home Office-provided accommodation.
Supported accommodation is provided to asylum claimants who can demonstrate that they are destitute while they wait for the outcome of their cases.
Claimants are typically not allowed to work unless they have been waiting more than a year for a decision and their job is on the Government’s Immigration Salary List.
Last year, 10,000 asylum claimants who had arrived in the UK legally on work and study visas were living in taxpayer-funded accommodation, such as hotels.
The Home Office disclosed in March that, of those asylum seekers, the most common nationalities were Pakistani, Nigerian and Sri Lankan.
It was previously revealed that these three nationalities would be among those targeted by the visa restrictions.
Now, The i Paper has obtained data from the Home Office showing which other nationalities are among those more commonly living in supported accommodation and claiming asylum after entering the UK on a visa – and could therefore be subjected to this crackdown.
Some 17,500 people are now living in taxpayer-funded accommodation after entering the UK on a visa, according to the data revealed via freedom of information laws.
Pakistanis make up the biggest proportion, at 3,291 claimants, followed by Nigerians (1,926) and Bangladeshis (1,336).
Some 1,308 Sri Lankans, 906 Indians, 848 Afghans and 562 Iranians were among the most common nationalities in this situation, the data from March 2025 showed.
Kama Petruczenko, senior policy analyst at the Refugee Council charity, accused the Government of “casting doubt unfairly” on people from certain countries.
She said: “It’s wrong to suggest that people who arrive on a visa and then apply for asylum are abusing the system and do not have a genuine need for protection.
“We know from our frontline services that some people arrive here on a visa looking forward to working or studying in Britain, but then the situation changes dramatically in their home country and it’s no longer safe for them to return home.”
In other situations, she said people seeking asylum only feel safe enough to ask for protection once they reach the UK because they fear reprisal or surveillance in their home country.
Brian Bell, an economics professor at King’s College London and chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, which advises the Home Secretary, said the UK issues a lot of visas to Pakistanis and Indians, which could explain why they make up a higher proportion of asylum claimants in supported accommodation.
He said it would make more sense for the Home Office to look at the figures as a percentage of all visa recipients from a particular country rather than in isolation.
Professor Bell warned that the Government could face a potential legal challenge if it goes ahead with these plans.
“You need to be very careful when you use this type of data to then make restrictions on people – essentially using nationality as a definition and then saying, therefore everyone from Country X shouldn’t be allowed to have a visa or should have extra restrictions put on place because of a small minority from that country who have overstayed,” he said.
He said it was important to bear in mind that the “vast majority” of people from these countries do not overstay and do not end up in government-provided accommodation.
Rather than putting restrictions on visa applications, Professor Bell said the Home Office could be better off using its profiling to check some visa applications more rigorously, such as making sure they have enough savings to support themselves.
Dr Peter Walsh, senior researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the plans have the potential for “diplomatic ramifications”.
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Read MoreHe said: “One of the questions that’s interesting for me is whether there might be some kind of legal basis for a challenge on the basis of unfair discrimination, based on whichever criteria it is they use – say, nationality.
“But what we do know is that the Government has very wide discretion over immigration rules of this kind. It’s well within their purview to tighten up the system and increase these additional restrictions, we just don’t know exactly how they’re going to do it.”
Dr Walsh said accommodation, particularly hotels, is the most expensive part of processing asylum claims, and speeding up decisions would help bring down costs.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take any abuse of the immigration system extremely seriously. Where there is evidence of wrongdoing, we will take firm action to challenge it and protect the integrity of our borders.
“This is why we are strengthening our ability to identify where individuals are deliberately intending to use visas as a backdoor route to claim asylum in the UK.”
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