The government of the United Kingdom has warned foreign students, including Nigerians, against overstaying their visas, saying they’ll remove them if they do not leave.
According to the BBC, as part of a new campaign, the government, through the UK Home Office, has begun contacting students directly by text and email — the first time such a measure is being deployed.
It was stated that about 10,000 students, whose visas are due to expire, have received the messages, while tens of thousands more will be contacted in the coming months.
“If you have no legal right to remain in the UK, you must leave. If you don’t, we will remove you,” the Home Office message reads.
The warning to students came as ministers try to respond to growing public concern over immigration, which has fuelled support for Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK party.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC on Tuesday that students should not be claiming asylum at the end of their course, adding: “We obviously will do our bit to support genuine refugees.”
Home Office data showed that in the year to June 2025, 43,600 people seeking asylum arrived in the UK on small boats. A similar number of people seeking asylum — 41,100 — entered the country legally with a visa, including 16,000 students.
Cooper admitted that asylum claims by students were only about a tenth of the total but said that the government needed to “tackle every single bit” of the system.
Cooper on Monday announced the suspension of applications from asylum seekers for family reunions.
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She told MPs the government was concerned that criminal gangs were using the prospect of family reunion to entice irregular migrants to attempt to cross the English Channel on small boats. Such journeys have risen to record levels this year.
Councils are facing a mounting homelessness problem fuelled by recently successful asylum seekers bringing over family members before they were capable of supporting them, she added.
Ministers are under significant pressure after a summer of protests against hotels being used to accommodate asylum seekers and rising opposition to high levels of migration.
Cooper said the government planned to introduce rules that would require successful asylum seekers to wait a longer period of time, as is common in many European countries, before they can apply to bring relatives. Prospective applicants would also need to demonstrate they had the financial resources to support family members they wanted to bring to the UK, she added.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Monday he wanted to go “further and faster” in closing asylum hotels, but accused Reform of peddling “unworkable, fanciful ideas” by claiming it could quickly resolve the issue of small boats.
The debate over immigration — most of which is legal — has led to calls for the UK to leave or suspend its membership of the European Convention on Human Rights, which has been used to block asylum seekers being deported.
