𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

More than 10,000 migrants have claimed asylum after arriving on a visa route which was “abused on an industrial scale”, new figures have revealed.

Some 5,600 sought protection in 2024 after arriving in the UK on a health and social care visa.

And Home Office statistics, first obtained by the Daily Mail under the Freedom of Information Act, show how the crisis of migrants claiming refuge after arriving legally is intensifying.

In 2024, 5,669 claimed asylum after arriving on the health and social care visa, up from 856 in 2023, and 36 in 2022.

In the first nine months of last year, there were 3,671 claims.

It means that over five years there were 10,236 asylum claims by foreign care workers.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp slammed the crisis, declaring that people should leave when their “care visas expire”.

He said: “These social care visas have been massively abused on an industrial scale to get into the UK,’ he said.

“Many who came brought multiple dependants and many never even worked in the care sector – if they even worked at all.

“When care visas expire, the people concerned should leave the UK unless they find high-paid alternative work.

“It is sick that over 10,000 likely bogus asylum have been made to enable these people to cheat the system and stay here.”

He added: “The asylum test should be made a lot tougher so only people genuinely in personal danger get asylum.

“Most social care visas were given to people from safe countries, so the vast majority of these asylum claims are likely to be bogus.

“They should be rejected and the people concerned returned to their country of origin as quickly as possible.”

In a growing loophole in Britain’s border controls, Home Office data shows the number of work migrants who later claim they are refugees is soaring under Labour.

 There were 13,427 asylum claims lodged in the year to September by work visa holders, up from 9,392 the previous year.

The most recently published data, covering the three months from July to September, saw asylum claims by foreign workers tip over the 4,000 mark for the first time, with 4,057.

A record number of asylum claims – 110,051 in the year to September – is heaping more pressure on the crumbling system.

This has been fuelled by a sharp rise in Channel migrant crossings and a surge in foreign nationals applying for refuge after arriving on a work, study or visitor visa.

Experts from Oxford University’s Migration Observatory said asylum made up 44% of net migration in the year to June. The true figure will be even higher as asylum claims have increased, whilst net migration has fallen, in the next three months.

Separate research – carried out by the Home Office – showed more than half of refugees are unemployed. The employment rate  amongst refugees reaches 45% after two years and 48% after eight, increasing fears they will the taxpayer even more in benefits.