Labour has been accused of covering up the full extent of a ‘backdoor to Britain’ which allows foreign students to claim asylum here.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said there is ‘rampant’ abuse by those granted a temporary student visas who then go on to claim they are a refugee in a bid to stay in the UK permanently.
The Conservative frontbencher asked the Home Office to reveal new figures on the numbers making such claims, after the Mail revealed last year that nearly 5,000 foreign students claimed asylum in the year to March 2023.
But the Home Office has so far refused to disclose the latest numbers.
Mr Philp said: ‘The Labour Government is covering up the rampant abuse of the system and refusing to publish the information regarding the number of asylum claims coming from international students registered at UK institutions.
‘This is not good enough – they must come clean and start revoking sponsoring licences from non-compliant organisations.
‘High-quality international students are welcome in the UK but too many institutions are selling immigration, not education.’
Mr Philp asked the Home Secretary in a parliamentary question ‘if she will publish the number people who came to the UK on a study visa and later claimed asylum for each sponsoring institution’.
In a written reply, immigration minister Seema Malhotra said: ‘The Immigration White Paper, published on May 12, sets out proposals for reform in a wide range of areas, including student visas, further details of which will be set out in due course.’
In April last year the Mail exclusively revealed how leaked documents – covering the year to March 2023 – showed a record 21,525 asylum claims were made by visa holders, a 154 per cent annual rise.
Of those, 4,965 arrived as students, 5,648 applications came on a visitor’s visa and another 2,240 were made by seasonal workers.
It also emerged at the time that education agency Study Group UK had sponsored visas for 804 foreign students who later claimed asylum.
Study Group’s website describes it as a ‘leading international education specialist and a trusted strategic partner to more than 50 universities around the world’.
The company was placed on a ‘compliance action plan’ by the Home Office in late 2024, which is understood to have been designed to address the high levels of non-compliance among its students.
But it was taken off the special measures at the end of March this year.
The firm remains licensed to sponsor student visas and is recruiting for new students ahead of the start of the academic year in the autumn.
The university and higher education sector has raised concerns that poor compliance by some firms poses a risk to their businesses.
One higher education executive said: ‘There are regulations in place, but they are not being enforced.
‘One bad actor is risking the credibility of the entire student visa system.’
A Study Group spokesman said: ‘The continued media focus on Study Group is disappointing, not least when we have consistently rebutted any claims and investigations into various areas of compliance.
‘The Daily Mail article in April 2024 referenced historic asylum data from the year to March 2022-2023.
‘As clarified with you last year, immediate measures were taken to address the anomalous spike in asylum applications from one particular country. This action was effective, and the following year claims fell by 90 per cent.
‘We do not support any intent to use education as a route to asylum and take our commitment to compliance with UK immigration and asylum policy extremely seriously.’
He said details of the action plan ‘remain confidential’, but added that ‘no reference was made to asylum claims, hence no specific steps were required to be taken in that regard’.
‘We continuously review and improve our processes, driving enhancements to ensure we continue to meet the highest standards of compliance,’ the spokesman said.
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Under successive governments we have seen a growing trend of the UK’s student visa system being undermined, both by individuals from overseas seeking to exploit it, and by education providers in this country failing to protect it.
‘We have acted quickly to tackle it, building intelligence on the profile of these individuals to identify them earlier and faster. This intelligence will help us stamp out this abuse and protect the integrity of our immigration system.