The government will stop issuing study visas to people from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan from this month, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said, as well as stopping skilled work visas to Afghans.
The Home Office said the action was being taken due to what it said was widespread visa abuse.
According to official figures, people from the four countries were the most likely to make an asylum claim after originally coming to the UK to study.
“The government is clamping down on visa abuse so the UK can maintain its ability and proud tradition of helping those genuinely in need,” a government spokesperson added.
In its release, the government said asylum claims from people who had originally travelled to the UK legally – to do something like studying – had more than tripled between 2021 and 2025.
Its figures showed that people claiming asylum off the back of a study visa make up 13% of the total.
Mahmood said she was “taking the unprecedented decision to refuse visas for those nationals seeking to exploit our generosity”.
“I will restore order and control to our borders.”
The Home Office said a higher proportion of people than average from the four specified country cited destitution as part of their asylum claim, and there were 16,000 people from the four countries currently being supported.
About 95% of Afghans who arrived in the UK on a study visa then applied for asylum since 2021, while applications by students from Myanmar increased sixteen-fold and claims by students from Cameroon and Sudan increased by more than 330%.
On its reasoning for ending work visas for Afghans, the Home Office also cited the large numbers claiming asylum in the UK once their visas expired.
It said this this posed “an unsustainable threat to the UK’s asylum system”.
The measures follow the prime minister’s decision to adopt a more hard-edged approach to diplomacy in response to pressure to reduce immigration from those on the political right, including the Conservatives and Reform UK.
Last week, the government announced protection for refugees would be halved to 30 months in an attempt to reduce small boat crossings.
In November, the home secretary threatened to shut down all UK visas for Angola, Namibia and the Democratic of Congo unless their governments agreed to take deportations, which led to a resumption of returns flights with all three countries.
The UK has resettled the sixth largest number of refugees referred by the UNCHR in the world, which the Home Office said demonstrated the government’s commitment to helping those genuinely in need.
Mahmood will introduce new legislation to stop the issuing of visas through an Immigration Rules change on Thursday 5 March.
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were contacted for comment.
