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Migration on course to hit 20-year low after visa crackdown - THE TELEGRAPH
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Net migration is on course to hit a 20-year low after the number of foreign workers and students coming to the UK fell by more than 100,000 in a year.
The number of people who applied for health and care worker visas fell by a half or 62,300 last year from 123,300 in 2024, while the number of skilled workers was down by 47,200 or 36 per cent in the same period.
Family visas were also down by 10,700 or 12 per cent after the Government suspended applications pending a crackdown on the right of successful asylum seekers to bring their spouses and children to the UK. Student and seasonal worker applicants remained stable, although the number of dependents fell.
Combined with record numbers of British nationals leaving the UK, the Home Office figures suggest the Government is on course to reduce net migration below 200,000 for the first time since the year ending December 2005 when it stood at 185,000.
The trend suggests migration is set to fall to levels last seen in 2003, before Tony Blair’s government opened the door to mass immigration from eastern Europe the following year.
Net migration in the UK currently stands at 204,000 for the year to June 2025. It has fallen from a peak of 944,000 in the year ending March 2023 caused at the height of the “Boriswave” of migrants.
