Net migration soared above 600,000 in 2022 for the first time on record. From them came almost 75,000 asylum applications - the greatest total in nearly two decades. A glance at the public finances shows the Home Office has lost control.
Record numbers of people crossed the English Channel last year in small boats. Less than 7,000 have been detected making the journey so far in 2023, according to latest Home Office figures.
The interior ministry said the new measures, which target post-graduate students except those on research programmes, will help cut migration "substantially" and stop people from using student visas as a backdoor route to find work in Britain.