LONDON: The UK’s new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said Britain could suspend issuing visas for citizens from countries — including Pakistan — that fail to “play ball” and agree to return deals for migrants.
Countries previously identified as non-cooperative include Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq and the Gambia.
The statement, at the start of Mahmood’s first international engagement since her appointment on Friday, underlines the urgency for the government under Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of tackling small-boat migration. Mahmood, the former justice secretary, who has a reputation as a tough political operator, said her “top priority” was securing the UK’s border.
“For us, that means the possibility of cutting visas in the future to say we do expect countries to play ball,” she said. Shabana added: “Play by the rules, and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country you have to take them back.”
On visas, the home secretary said: “There is interesting space for collaborating, particularly on how we deal with countries who do not take their citizens back.”
In May, during a visit to the Albanian capital Tirana, Starmer said the UK was in talks with several countries, including Albania, about establishing “return hubs” for people whose asylum applications had been rejected. There have been record levels of small-boat crossings this year and protests outside several hotels housing asylum seekers.
According to the Home Office, more than 30,000 migrants have arrived in the UK on small boats so far this year, a figure that is already at a record high. Mahmood said the figure was “utterly unacceptable”.
Geo News reported in May this year that the UK is planning on restricting visa applications from nationalities considered most likely to overstay and claim asylum.
Applications for work and study visas from citizens of certain countries including Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka could be curbed by the Home Office.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “To tackle abuse by foreign nationals who arrive on work and study visas and go on to claim asylum, we are building intelligence on the profile of these individuals to identify them earlier and faster.”
“We keep the visa system under constant review and will where we detect trends, which may undermine our immigration rules, we will not hesitate to take action.
“Under our plan for change, our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.”
Figures released in June this year indicated that the number of migrants applying for key visa routes into the UK had dropped by more than a third in a year.
Applications across the worker, study, and family visa categories covered a total of 772,200 people in the year to March 2025, down 37 percent on the nearly 1.24 million in the previous 12 months, according to the Home Office data.
The decline is likely to reflect changes in legal migration rules introduced early in 2024 by the previous Conservative government, including a ban on overseas care workers and students bringing family dependents, and a steep rise in the salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700.