International Students Risk Removal if they Overstay Visas

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced that tens of thousands of international students will be directly contacted by the government and told they face removal if they overstay their visas.

The Home Office has launched the campaign following what it described as an “alarming” rise in international students legally arriving on study visas and then claiming asylum once they expire.

For the first time, about 130,000 students and their families will receive proactive warnings.

The message makes clear: “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.”

The move has drawn criticism from higher education leaders.

The University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said the campaign was an “attack on international students” that has “very little to do with visa overstays and everything to do with apeing Reform”.

She added: “They should instead be making the case for a welcoming and economically strong Britain, of which international students and a world-leading higher education sector are an integral part.”

Although much attention this summer has focused on people arriving across the Channel in small boats, a comparable number have entered the UK legally and later applied for asylum.

Home Office data shows that in the year to June 2025, 43,600 people seeking asylum arrived by small boat. That figure made up 39% of all claims.

Another 41,100 claims came from people who had entered on visas, with students the largest group. Almost 16,000 students applied for asylum last year, nearly six times the number in 2020.

The department has since reported a 10% drop in student asylum claims, but ministers want the figures to fall further.

Earlier in 2025, the government reduced the period overseas graduates can stay after completing their studies from two years to 18 months.

The policy shift comes amid pressure from opposition parties, including the Conservatives and Reform, to declare “a national emergency” on migration and illegal immigration.

Cooper was pressed on whether migrants would be sent back across the Channel this month under a new deal with France.

She replied: “We expect the first returns to take place this month.

“But I’ve always said from the very beginning on this, it’s a pilot scheme and it needs to build up over time.”

She contrasted her approach with the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda plan, which she said “spent £700m and sent four volunteers after running it for two years”.

Cooper also said the government aims to move asylum seekers out of hotels before the end of the current parliament.

Sir Keir Starmer had set the same deadline, which could last until 2029. Cooper said ministers believed the goal could be achieved sooner.