UK blocks study visas for four nationalities

Images

×

U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood arrives for a cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street in London on Tuesday. japantimes.co.jp

A solar farm in Nakai, Kanagawa Prefecture, in March 2016. Japan gets about a tenth of its electricity from solar panels despite having nearly no domestic production of photovoltaics (PVs). japantimes.co.jp

As Japan accelerates AI adoption, policymakers and corporations frame the technology as essential to offsetting a projected labor shortfall of 11 million workers by 2040. japantimes.co.jp

Yamagata co-hosts event on revitalizing rural economies japantimes.co.jp

‹ ›

Britain will block study visas for nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan and halt work visas for Afghans from 26 March, calling the move an “emergency brake” on asylum claims routed through legal entry channels. Reuters reports the UK government says asylum applications by students from the four countries rose more than fivefold between 2021 and 2025.

The policy is aimed at a specific pipeline: admission under a student route, followed by an asylum claim after arrival, and then—if successful—settlement. That pipeline has been politically combustible because it shifts the costs from private payers to the state. Universities and language colleges collect tuition up front, landlords fill rooms, airlines sell tickets, and then the downstream liabilities—housing, legal aid, support payments, appeals—land on the taxpayer once an asylum claim is lodged. The UK Home Office argues that the number of people using these routes has grown fast enough to justify a country-by-country suspension rather than case-by-case enforcement.

Le Monde reports the government is also suspending skilled-worker visas for Afghans, citing “abuse” of legal routes and pointing to the annual cost of supporting asylum seekers, which it puts at more than £4bn. The paper notes that between September 2024 and September 2025 the UK issued about 2,900 study visas to nationals of the four targeted countries and 90 skilled-worker visas to Afghans, followed by 1,210 asylum claims from holders of those visas. That ratio matters because it turns visa policy into a blunt screening tool: the state is choosing to reduce the inflow at the border rather than expand the capacity to process and remove failed claims later.

The move also highlights how migration control is now being done administratively, not legislatively. A visa route can be tightened overnight by guidance and eligibility rules, without a parliamentary fight over asylum law itself. It is the same logic behind earlier UK threats to restrict visas for countries that refuse to take deportees back: access to the UK becomes a bargaining chip, and compliance is measured in removals.

For higher education, the change lands on a fragile revenue model. International students cross-subsidise domestic teaching and research, especially in cash-strapped institutions. If the Home Office is willing to shut off entire nationalities when asylum numbers spike, universities inherit a new kind of political risk: the student body becomes a variable the government can reprice.

The Home Office says the new restrictions take effect on 26 March. The calendar is precise; the incentives behind it are not subtle.