Fall in number of visas granted to healthcare workers and families of overseas students
ITV News social affairs correspondent Sarah Corker explains the significant drop in health and social care visas granted in the past year
The number of visas granted to financially dependent relatives and partners of students coming to study in the UK has fallen sharply compared to last year, new Home Office figures show.
In the first six months of this year, visas granted to dependants of overseas students tumbled by 81% to 11,675 compared to the same period in 2023.
It follows plans announced in May 2023 by the Conservative government to block international sponsored students from bringing dependants with them to the UK.
The number of health and care worker visas granted was also 26% lower compared to the same period last year.
This comes after the previous government introduced changes in March, which restricted overseas care workers from bringing relatives with them to the UK.
The latest Home Office figures show the number of NHS and social care visas granted in the year to June 2024 was down 26% on the previous year.
The statistics have also shown a four-fold increase in the number of decisions being made on all asylum claims between June 2023 and June 2024.
Asylum backlog creeps up again
The data released shows the UK's asylum processing backlog dropped by almost a third in a year, but started creeping back up again in the spring of 2024.
A total of 118,882 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2024, down by 32% from 175,457 at the end of June 2023.
But the latest total has risen slightly from the 118,329 waiting to be dealt with at the end of March this year, indicating a rise in the last three months up until June 2024.
Marley Morris, from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), believes the previous government's Rwanda plan is behind the uptick in recent months.
“Despite the previous home secretary making progress on clearing the backlog of asylum claims last year, the backlog has barely changed in recent months as ministers were distracted by the Rwanda plan," he said.
According to the Home Office statistics, over 97,000 applied for asylum in the UK between June 2023 and June 2024 - a drop of 8% compared to the previous year, which the department said is due to a decrease in claims from Albanian small boat arrivals.
The number of decisions on asylum applications in the same period was four times higher than the previous year, which the Home Office attributes to more asylum decision makers and increased productivity.
The total number of enforced returns of people to their home countries went up by about half on last year - but according to the Home Office, this was "largely due to an 87% rise in Albanian enforced returns last year to 2,822".
Between June 2023 and June 2024, there were 39% fewer visas granted on a safe and legal humanitarian routes, a drop attributed to a "reduction in use" of visa schemes for Ukrainians.
The most recent Home Office figures showed the provisional total number of those who had crossed the English Channel by small boats in 2024 so far had reached over 19,000 as of Monday.
The department found people from Afghanistan were the most common nationality making small boat journeys across the Channel, accounting for 18% of those making the journey in the 12 months leading up to June 2024.
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It marks a 10% increase on last year's figures, but is 10% down on the number crossing the channel in 2022 during the same period.
The figures come follow the home secretary's announcement of new measures to tackle illegal immigration, including hiring more specialist officers to dismantle smuggling gangs, and increasing deportation flights.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's plan involves hiring 100 specialist intelligence and investigations officers at the National Crime Agency (NCA), which would follow a 50% increase in the number of NCA officers stationed at Europol.
She assured that a range of sanctions, including financial penalties, business closure orders, and potential prosecution, will be imposed on employers of illegal workers.
Refugee charity Care4Calais CEO Steve Smith said: “The new government continuing to invest in border security rather than workable solutions is repeating the mistakes of the last government.
“The evidence shows that these so-called deterrents don’t work. They do nothing to reduce Channel crossings, they just force people to take greater risks to do so.
“The only way to stop crossings, and to save lives, is to create safe routes for people to claim asylum in the UK. That’s what the new Government should be focusing on.”
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly called the government's current approach "pathetic".
He said: "They still haven't recruited a commander for this phantom border command. Their rhetoric is falling apart and their action is falling well below what the country needs."
The previous Conservative government vowed to introduce a scheme where some individuals entering the UK illegally would be deported to Rwanda - but this was scrapped by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer just two days into his time in office.
According to figures released by Labour ministers in July, around £700 million was spent on the defunct scheme, which aimed to act as a deterrent to those trying to enter the UK by illegal means.
However, no flights ever took off, and only four volunteers ever arrived in Rwanda.
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