Migrants who overstay their visas will be removed from the UK, a minister has pledged after data showed they account for nearly 40% of asylum claims.
Last year, around 40,000 people who entered Britain as students, workers, or visitors later sought asylum. About 10,000 lived in taxpayer-funded hotels or government accommodation, despite initially claiming they wouldn’t need public support.
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered an investigation amid concerns the visa system is being exploited by migrants as a backdoor to residency.
Border Security Minister Angela Eagle told Times Radio: “We inherited the system we inherited with a 70% fall in any kind of processing with 100,000 people in dispersal accommodation or hotels who weren’t even being processed by the previous government.”
She added: “When they came in on a visa they actually told us that they had the means to exist in the country without relying on public funds.”
Asked if visa overstayers would be removed from taxpayer-funded housing, Eagle said: “They will certainly and if they’re overstaying they’ll be removed from the country.”
Meanwhile, PM Keir Starmer hosted a summit with 40 nations to tackle illegal migration, urging global cooperation against smuggling gangs.
“Illegal migration is a massive driver of global insecurity,” Starmer said. “It undermines our ability to control who comes here… It makes me angry, frankly, because it’s unfair on ordinary working people who pay the price.”
The UK will spend £33 million to disrupt smuggling networks, including funding foreign prosecutions.
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