Tens of thousands of foreign students are being contacted directly by the government and told they will be removed from the UK if they overstay their visas.
The Home Office launched the new government campaign in response to what it has called an “alarming” spike in the number of international students arriving legally on student visas then claiming asylum when they expire.
As part of the campaign, the Home Office has for the first time proactively contacted international students directly by text and email.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said some international students are claiming asylum “even when things haven’t changed in their home country”.
Around 13% of asylum applications in the year to June, around 14,800, came from people in the UK a study visa, according to The Home Office.
Pakistan was the most common country of origin, responsible for 5,700 of these applications, followed by students from India, Bangladesh, and Nigeria.
Although the number of student visa holders applying for asylum has dropped from the year before, it is nearly six times as many as in 2020, according to the department.
The Home Office did not break down how many applications were made from students who overstayed their visa.
Clamping down on study as a means to claim asylum has increasingly been a focus for the Home Office in recent months.
In May, the department announced it planned to tighten rules that aim to stop migrants using university study as a way to enter the UK.
Under the plans, beginning this month, the visa refusal and course completion rates that universities have to meet in order not to risk losing their ability to sponsor future visas are to be made stricter.
