LONDON

The Home Office will warn international students not to use the asylum system to extend their stay in the UK once their courses have finished, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Cooper said the government will contact students directly to remind them of the rules.

Officials say growing numbers of people are arriving on student visas but then claiming asylum when they are due to return home.

Texts and emails will be sent to students, saying: “If you submit an asylum claim that lacks merit, it will be swiftly and robustly refused. Any request for asylum support will be assessed against destitution criteria. If you do not meet the criteria, you will not receive support. If you have no legal right to remain in the UK, you must leave. If you don’t, we will remove you.”

Cooper said there was a problem with students “claiming asylum as they come to the end of their visa, even when things haven’t changed in their home country.”

“If nothing has changed in their country, people should not be claiming asylum at the end of a student course. We need to clamp down on that and that’s why we’re sending these messages to be very clear to people – the asylum system is not for people who just want to extend their visas,” she added.

The UK government on Monday said it is temporarily suspending applications for refugees seeking to bring family members to the country, as it prepares new, tighter rules for family reunions.

Cooper told British Parliament that the current rules “were designed many years ago to help families separated by war, conflict and persecution, but the way they are now being used has changed.”

The remarks came after anti-immigrant protesters in west London attempted to enter hotels accommodating asylum seekers last Saturday.

London Police have arrested five people during the protests outside the hotel on Stockley Road.