5,500 Indians have applied for asylum in Britain since 2013

As many as 5,500 Indian citizens applied for asylum in the United Kingdom over the last five years, new figures released by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday have revealed.

Most of the applications were made after the Indians arrived in the UK, indicating that they may have travelled on valid visas and applied for asylum later. Since 2013, 2,775 Indians were refused entry into the UK at ports and subsequently deported.

The figures also reveal that since 2014, 22,175 Indians who did not have the right to remain in the UK voluntarily returned.

Since 2008, when the Tier I Investors Visa was introduced, 74 Indian millionaires with 100 dependents migrated to the UK. Until November 2014, the minimum investment required under the category was £1 million, later increased to £2 million after a committee found that the threshold was not bringing enough benefits to the British economy.

In 2017, Indian nationals were granted the second highest number of visitor visas (after China), up 11% to 433,852, the figures revealed. Chinese and Indian nationals alone accounted for 46% of all visitor visas granted.

China, the US and India accounted for 53% of the 223,536 study-related visas granted in 2017, with the largest number going to Chinese nationals.