New Delhi: Indian nationals, who make up one of the largest migrant groups in Britain and received more than half a million UK visas last year, could be directly affected by a new policy shift in London that links visa access to cooperation on deportations.
The UK has warned that it may cut the number of visas it grants to countries that delay or refuse to take back their citizens found living unlawfully, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announcing on 8 September a fresh agreement with the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand that collectively make up the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing alliance to push for faster returns.
The agreement lays out clear obligations for countries to accept the return of their nationals who have no legal right to remain abroad, with an emphasis on tackling prolonged delays, refusals to issue travel documents and limited cooperation. Where governments remain unwilling to accept enforced repatriations, the UK has said it will consider “appropriate adjustments” to visa arrangements to reflect immigration risks.
Mahmood described abuse of the immigration system as a “serious threat to public safety” and signalled that London will act firmly against non-cooperative countries. She said the message was clear: anyone with no legal right to remain would be deported, and countries that refuse to accept their own citizens would face consequences.
The joint statement, which takes immediate effect, also covers coordinated efforts to counter the role of online platforms in facilitating irregular migration. UK authorities estimate that nearly 80 per cent of migrants arriving by small boats use social media during their journeys, often responding to adverts for illegal crossings and communicating with smuggling networks. As per data, since 2021, the National Crime Agency has taken down more than 23,000 posts or accounts promoting organised immigration crime, with over 8,000 removals in the past year alone.
For India, which has one of the largest migrant populations in the UK, this new announcement is highly relevant.
Official data tabled in Parliament in New Delhi shows that 311 Indians were deported from the UK between 2020 and 2024. Yet deportations tell only part of the story.
In 2020, over 20,700 Indian nationals were found to have overstayed their visas—around one in twenty Indian visa holders at the time.
Irregular arrivals are, as per UK data, also rising. Just over 2,000 Indians are recorded to have crossed the Channel in small boats since 2018, but more than half of those came in 2023 alone, when 1,194 made the journey, signalling a new pattern of movement. Against this backdrop of overstays and unauthorised entry, the actual number of deportations looks modest and hence this announcement could lead to either increase in such deportations or decrease in the issuance of visas.
It is pertinent to mention that India remains central to Britain’s legal migration system. In 2024, Indian nationals received more than 5.4 lakh visitor visas, accounting for a quarter of all such grants. Indians also topped the work visa charts, accounting for about 16 per cent of main applicant slots. Nearly one lakh Indian students were granted UK study visas in the year ending June 2025, still the second highest after China despite a slight dip from earlier peaks.
The combination of rising overstays, growing irregular arrivals, high visa demand and relatively low deportation levels places India squarely in the frame of the UK’s new migration enforcement strategy.
