Home Office moves to close 'insane' asylum loophole with text message warning issued to would-be migrants

International students will be issued with a direct warning via text and email for the first time.

It is believed that about 130,000 students and their families in total will be sent a message telling them they will be "removed".

The full message will read: "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 number of students claiming graduate visas soared by almost 50 per cent to 140,000 last year, with a rejection rate of just 0.6 per cent, Universities UK said.

As a result, students "don't really need to claim asylum any more," one source at think tank Migration Watch told GB News.

Typically, they can stay for up to two years while working or seeking employment.

Tory policy chief and MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston Neil O'Brien warned that students effectively disappear off the radar - with the Home Office unable and possibly unwilling to track them down.

Departmental data shows that 16,000 people who arrived in Britain on student visas applied for asylum in 2024. "It's a fairly under-discussed problem, even though it's a big one," a researcher at Migration Watch UK told GB News.

"There's a lot of focus on temporary workers, but really, the 'Trojan Horse' issue of universities is being ignored."

Asylum applications from work, study and tourist visa-holders more than tripled under the previous government and accounted for 37 per cent (41,400) of overall claims in the year ending June 2025.

International students made up the highest proportion of claimants at 40 per cent, followed by 29 per cent from work visas and 24 per cent visitors. Now, ministers have said they believe asylum hotels can be emptied in advance of the end of the current Parliament.

"Our manifesto commitment was to do so over the course of the Parliament, but we do want that to be earlier, and we’ve been working for some time," Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Times Radio.

"We do believe it can be done earlier. It’s dependent on a whole series of factors, so we’re not setting out precise timetables. What we are doing is setting out the steps that we are taking.”

Despite this, the Home Secretary declined to provide an exact date when migrants will be sent back across the Channel under the return deal with France.

Pressed for a guarantee, 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."

Questioned whether she could guarantee returns would begin amid reports the French government may falter on the deal, the Home Secretary insisted the UK would “continue to work” with France.

When pushed for exact date in September when this would take place, Ms Cooper told Sky News: “It will be later this month.”

The "one in, one out" pilot scheme has been agreed for the UK to send back migrants to France who crossed the Channel, in exchange for those who apply and are approved to come to the UK.

Ms Cooper also told the Commons new applications to the existing refugee family reunion route will be suspended this week, meaning refugees will be covered by "the same family migration rules and conditions as everyone else" until new rules are introduced.

Further reforms to family reunion routes will be outlined later this year and introduced by spring.

Sir Keir Starmer, meanwhile, insisted he wants to speed up efforts to empty asylum hotels, with the Prime Minister saying: "I completely understand why people are so concerned about it" when asked about public anger."