The British government says it has largely blocked Nigerian and other international students from flooding the United Kingdom with their dependants.

UK Home Secretary James Cleverly announced this on Tuesday, noting that “this does not mark the end of the road in our plan to cut migration, there is more still to come. Over the coming months, we will continue to show the pace of our progress as we deliver the control the public rightly expect.”

A statement by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government said Tuesday that “strong action taken by the Home Secretary to transform the UK’s immigration system and cut unsustainable and unfair levels of migration is delivering.”

The statement added, “The number of dependants accompanying students to the UK has drastically fallen by almost 80%, with more than 26,000 fewer student visa applications made from January to March 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.”

It noted that the UK government’s measures to tighten student visas, which came into force in January, “have prevented most international students starting courses this year from bringing family members,” pointing out that “students can also no longer switch their visa before completing their course, preventing people from using the route as a backdoor to work in the UK, while clamping down on institutions which undermine the UK’s reputation by selling immigration not education.”

Mr Cleverly lamented the “ever-spiralling numbers” which “were eroding the British people’s confidence in our immigration system, burdening public services and suppressing wages.”

The British official added, “When I promised to deliver the largest-ever cut in legal migration, I knew we must also work to show the impact of our action as soon as practically possible.  

“This data shows a significant fall in numbers on the first of our measures to take effect whilst underlining why necessary action was taken to cut unsustainable numbers of care worker dependants.”

Taken together, Mr Cleverly’s package to reduce legal migration will mean approximately 300,000 people arriving in the UK last year would no longer be able to. 

It also includes commissioning the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to carry out a rapid review of the Graduate route for international students to prevent abuse, protect the integrity and quality of UK higher education and ensure it works in the best interests of the UK, replacing the Shortage Occupation List with a new Immigration Salary List, with employers no longer able to pay migrants less than UK workers in shortage occupations, raising the minimum income requirement for the family visa, to reach the level of the Skilled Worker visa, currently £38,700 by early 2025