The number of professions that meet the requirements for qualified visas has been significantly expanded to include jobs such as chef, bricklayer, electrician, welder, sanitary worker and sanitary worker, while the government also removed the limits on most visa routes.
The main recipients of work visas were Indians (87,000), Ukraine (21,000), the Philippines (16,000), Nigeria (15,000) and the United States (11,000). EU citizens, who now need visas to come and stay in the UK, accounted for only six per cent of applications. France topped the table with 5,000.
There has been a sharp decline in EU nationals seeking to live in the UK, with the National Statistics Office (ONS) reporting that net migration to the UK from the EU is negative with 12,000 more people leaving than they arrive.
Marked jump on non-EU visas
The most notable was the jump in “other” visas, including those in Hong Kong and the relatives of EU citizens living in the UK, which almost tripled from 71,829 to 196,772, a jump of 173%.
This included 28,000 visas for Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, 87,000 British national visas abroad (BNO) for Hong Kongers and 52,000 EU family permits.
Robert McNeil, deputy director of the Oxford University Migration Observatory, said the reason for the increase was due to the government’s decision to abandon the commitment of Theresa May and David’s administrations. Cameron to set net migration targets.
“There is no longer a focus on reducing the total number of migrants arriving in the UK. That is a fact within the policy design,” he said.
“What we see as a result is that in order for the government to send a message of control, it is focusing heavily on the policy of stopping the arrival of ships or cracking down on asylum.”
However, even in this sense, the number of asylum applications has increased by 44.9%, from 44,484 to 65,008.
The proportion of asylum seekers who received a positive decision on their application reached 75% in the year ending March 2022, the highest since 82% in 1990.
The number of people awaiting a decision on their asylum application in the UK has also risen by more than 300 per cent in four years.
A total of 109,735 asylum seekers were awaiting a decision by the end of March 2022, more than double the two years earlier and more than the 27,256, 303% more, in March 2018.
The increase in the number of asylum applications follows the record number of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats, with 9,327 arriving this year, almost three times the number that had arrived at that time last year.