How many visas go to countries that have been affected by the halt on grants?

The UK government has ceased issuing study visas to individuals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood accusing these nations of exploiting Britain’s "generosity" in offering asylum. This decision comes despite the fact that citizens from these four countries collectively represented less than one per cent of all UK study visas granted to foreign nationals last year.

Last year, the UK received 100,625 asylum claims. Of these, 12 per cent – equating to 12,578 individuals – had initially entered the country on a study visa. While the Home Office regularly publishes data on the nationalities of those issued study visas, a detailed breakdown of the nationalities within this 12 per cent figure is not publicly available.

These figures show the four countries affected by the Government’s latest decision made up just 0.7% of study visas issued in 2025.

There were 2,084 visas granted to foreign nationals from Myanmar, 538 for Cameroon, 277 for Afghanistan and 243 for Sudan.

Together these made up 3,142 visas out of the 429,254 study visas issued last year.

The four countries have accounted for a similar proportion of study visas in each of the past five years, making up 0.7% of the total granted in 2025, 2024 and 2023, 0.5% in 2022 and 0.4% in 2021.

The most common nationalities in each of the past five years were India, China, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Collectively, these four countries accounted for 60% of study visas issued last year, 63% in 2024, 68% in 2023, 70% in 2022 and 64% in 2021.

The Government has also halted the issuing of skilled work visas to Afghanistan.

Some 154 work visas were issued to Afghans last year, accounting for 0.1% of a total of 261,112.

A separate breakdown of the 100,625 people claiming asylum in the UK last year shows that Afghans were the fourth most common nationality, making up 6% of the total (6,462 people), though this covers all routes into the UK, both legal and illegal, regardless of when someone first arrived in the country.

Sudan accounted for a further 6% of this total (5,869 people), Myanmar 1% (879) and Cameroon 1% (765).

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