Pakistan dominates across all categories of visas and was the only nationality appearing in the top three for each of the student, work, visitor, and other routes. Taken together, Pakistani nationals made 9,783 asylum claims, representing around 24 per cent of all visa-to-asylum switches in 2024.
Pakistan topped the table for student visa switches to asylum with 5,888 claims, more than the totals for the second and third placed countries of India (2,295) and Bangladesh (2,374) combined.
With 902 visitor visa holders seeking asylum, Pakistan was second to China’s 1,094. It was also second for work visa switches to asylum, with 2,578 to Bangladesh’s 3,268.
Pakistanis’ 11,234 asylum claims in the year to June accounted for one in 10 of all the 111,000 applications, the highest total number since records began.
