The UK Home Office said in a statement on Tuesday that an 'emergency brake' on visas has been imposed for the first time on nationals from four countries, following a surge in asylum claims by students on study visas. The Home Office said the number of asylum applications by students from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan had rocketed by more than 470 percent between 2021 and 2025.
"The proportion of municipalities that see themselves in emergency mode and describe themselves as overburdened has visibly decreased to 11%," said Boris Kuhn from the Migration Policy Research Group at the University of Hildesheim. "At the same time, however, more than 70% of municipalities continue to say that the situation is challenging. It would therefore not be accurate to talk about a relaxed situation across the board," he added.
This is the first data that takes into account the huge rise in small boat crossings since March. A few months ago, some people inside the Home Office had been worried that hotel use could spike as a result. But that hasn't happened. The number of asylum seekers in hotels actually went slightly down between March and June. Ministers have been trying to find alternative sources of accommodation, like regular houses and flats within communities - but those numbers haven't gone up either.