A Pakistani asylum seeker has made a direct plea to Sir Keir Starmer to let him stay in the UK because he is gay, accusing the Prime Minister of seeking to ‘punish’ migrants like him who came on student visas.

Ali Raza Nasir insists he came to the UK to study but when he visited Soho in central London and met other gay people he realised he would be ‘safe’ in Britain. 

Mr Nasir fears that he will be deported to his home country of Pakistan, where his family had wanted to arrange a marriage for him with a woman.

Sir Keir wants to force overseas graduates to leave the UK within 18 months unless they land a skilled job.

The PM has suggested thousands of people who came to the UK on student or work visas like Ali, who went on to try and claim asylum, could now face deportation. 

But Ali claims that the Prime Minister is wrong and warned the Labour leader he should ‘protect us [asylum seekers] – not punish us’. 

‘I am a gay person. So when I came here, I knew there were human rights here’, he said.

‘My family are forcing me to come back to Pakistan to marry a girl – but I declined.

‘And over the passage of time I was honest with them and said that I can’t marry a girl’.

Ali Raza Nasir, who came to Britain from Pakistan as a student and has claimed asylum in the UK because he is gay, has criticised Sir Keir Starmer's rhetoric on deporting people like him Ali Raza Nasir, who came to Britain from Pakistan as a student and has claimed asylum in the UK because he is gay, has criticised Sir Keir Starmer's rhetoric on deporting people like him

Ali Raza Nasir, who came to Britain from Pakistan as a student and has claimed asylum in the UK because he is gay, has criticised Sir Keir Starmer’s rhetoric on deporting people like him

Ali insists he did not come to the UK to play the system. 

‘I came here for study’, he told Sky News.

‘In Pakistan there are laws that say you can’t marry a guy. You can’t express your feelings. You can’t live openly there.

‘So when I came here [to the UK] and went to central London with my friends, to Soho, and read on Google that this country is safe.

‘I met many gay people and know I can be safe here’.

Ali is being supported by the Persian LGBT Community in UK organisation.

He said that his message to Sir Keir Starmer, who is talking tough on immigration, would be: ‘It’s not good because I am a gay and I exist. We have a right to live our own life. They have to protect us, not punish us’.

It came as official figure revealed on Thursday that immigration has tumbled in the past year – but is still at a high level.

Official figures showed net long-term inflows were 431,000 in the year to December, compared with 860,000 across 2023. 

Numbers had dropped to 739,000 in the year to last June – just before the election – with the peak remaining 906,000 in the 12 months to June 2023.

The Tories said the ONS data demonstrated their curbs were already having an impact – although the level in 2024 was still roughly equivalent to the population of Leeds. 

Separate figures from the Home Office showed 32,245 asylum seekers were housed in hotels as of the end of March this year – despite Keir Starmer’s vow to shut them down.    

The PM unveiled a crackdown on legal immigration last week, warning that failure to control the system risked turning Britain into an ‘island of strangers’.

Downing Street was forced to deny angry comparisons from MPs that it was an echo of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech.

Director of population statistics at the ONS Mary Gregory said: ‘Our provisional estimates show net migration has almost halved compared with the previous year, driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study, particularly student dependants. This follows policy changes brought in restricting visa applications.

‘There has also been an increase in emigration over the 12 months to December 2024, especially people leaving who originally came on study visas once pandemic travel restrictions to the UK were eased.’

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Keir Starmer unveiled a crackdown on legal immigration last week, warning that failure to control the system risked turning Britain into an 'island of strangers'

Keir Starmer unveiled a crackdown on legal immigration last week, warning that failure to control the system risked turning Britain into an ‘island of strangers’

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A Home Office summary of the immigration system numbers for the year ending in March

A Home Office summary of the immigration system numbers for the year ending in March 

It was the biggest calendar-year drop since the early stages of the pandemic when net migration fell from 184,000 in the year ending December 2019 to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020.

The numerical drop was the largest for any 12-month period, with the ONS pointing to falling numbers of people coming to work and study in the UK.

Long-term immigration fell below one million for the first time in around three years.

That was estimated to be 948,000 in the year ending December 2024, down by almost a third from 1,326,000 in the previous 12 months and below a million for the first time since the 12 months to March 2022.

Emigration rose by around 11 per cent to an estimated 517,000 for the year to December, up from 466,000 in the previous year.

People leaving the UK has returned to a similar level to the year ending June 2017.

There was a 49 per cent decrease in 2024 in the number of non-EU+ nationals arriving in the UK as the main applicant on a work visa, along with a 35 per cent fall in those coming as work dependants.

The number of non-EU+ nationals arriving as main applicants on a study visa dropped by 17 per cent, while there was a much larger fall of 86% in study dependants.

The drop is likely to reflect changes in migration rules introduced in early 2024 by the previous Conservative government, which included restricting the ability of most international students to bring family members.

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