More than 13,000 foreign nationals claimed asylum in Britain after coming here on a work visa in the last year.
In a growing loophole in Britain’s border controls, Home Office data shows the number of work migrants who later claim they are refugees is soaring under Labour.
There were 13,427 asylum claims lodged in the year to September by work visa holders, up from 9,392 the previous year.
The most recently published data, covering the three months from July to September, saw asylum claims by foreign workers tip over the 4,000 mark for the first time, with 4,057.
Between 2018 and mid-2023 the Home Office saw between just 100 and 1,000 such claims per quarter.
In all, there were just under 41,500 asylum claims lodged by migrants who had previously come here on a visa or other permit.
They made up 38 per cent of a record 110,051 asylum claims in the year.
The loophole of coming to Britain on a visa only to then claim asylum is also exploited by other types of migrants.
In the year to September more than 14,300 foreign students claimed to be refugees, along with nearly 8,300 who came on a visitor visa.
The figures also indicated a growing problem with the Home Office’s new ‘electronic travel authorisation’, or ETA, which replaced paper visas with an online permission to enter the UK.
The number of asylum claims lodged by migrants who came to Britain under an ‘other leave’ category – which includes ETA holders – jumped to 5,533 claims in the year. No full breakdown of the figures was available.
But the new total was double the 2,614 in the previous 12 months, corresponding with the wider roll-out of the ETA scheme at the start of this year.
It suggests the ETA programme is contributing to Britain’s soaring number of asylum claims, even though the Home Office claimed the scheme would ‘strengthen border security’.
At the end of last year it emerged the scheme had triggered a 15-fold surge in asylum seekers from one country.
Law changes were hurriedly brought in after it emerged Jordanian nationals were ‘abusing the immigration rules’ by obtaining ETAs and coming to Britain to claim asylum.
Others were using ETAs to come to the UK and then catch a connecting flight to the Republic of Ireland and lodging asylum claims there.
Background papers published by the Home Office said: ‘Following the lifting of the visa regime in February 2024, there has been a significant increase in Jordanian nationals who have travelled to the UK for purposes that are not permitted under the visit and ETA provisions, such as to live, work or claim asylum in the UK.’
The official papers went on: ‘In addition, there has been an increase in Jordanian nationals using an ETA to transit through the UK and subsequently claim asylum in Ireland.’
UK asylum claims by Jordanians rose from 17 in the final quarter of 2023 – before ETA changes were applied to their nationality – to 261 in the second quarter of 2024.
Jordanians had only been brought into the scope of the ETA scheme seven months before the Home Office was compelled to act.
Despite the concerns, the ETA programme was massively expanded to 27 additional countries including Brazil, Mexico, Botswana and a number of Caribbean states in January this year, and in April to European Union nationals.
But just a few months later it had to be withdrawn for Botswana.
On October 14 the Home Office announced it was being pulled for ‘all nationals of Botswana’ adding: ‘This decision comes in response to a high number of Botswana nationals arriving since 2022 as visitors and subsequently claiming asylum.’
They are required to apply for a visa instead – a process which involves closer scrutiny of the application.
The Home Office bragged in 2023 that the ETA measures would ‘further strengthen our border, by ensuring robust security checks are conducted on every visitor pre-travel’.
The department claims ETAs allow ‘smooth and efficient travel’.
‘The application process will be quick, light touch and entirely digital with most visitors applying via a mobile app and receiving a swift decision on their application,’ a spokesman said when it was launched.
Individuals with an ETA, which costs £16, can make multiple visits to the UK over a two-year validity period.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘It’s a disgrace that this Government is letting in tens of thousands of people each year who then abuse the system by claiming asylum to stay in the UK permanently.
‘It is clear work visas are being particularly abused.
‘We need much stricter checks before allowing people in, and the asylum system tightened up so that fabricated and bogus claims are rejected.
‘At the moment the system is much too weak and is being abused on an industrial scale.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The UK operates a robust and effective visa system, which is kept under regular review.
‘Where any widespread abuse is identified, we always take decisive action, including introducing visit visa requirements for countries where a significant number of nationals go on to claim asylum in the UK.
‘Where these visit visa requirements have been implemented, the number of asylum seekers from these countries has fallen by 93% through this action alone.’
