The United Kingdom (UK)'s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood yesterday threatened to impose crippling visa sanctions on Namibian citizens, as well as those from Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The looming visa ban, Mahmood announced in that country's House of Commons yesterday, will result in a Trump-style blockade of tourists, VIPs and businesspeople from travelling to Britain from all three countries.
Unless Namibia and her southern African neighbours improve their co-operation on removals and agree to take back their citizens who migrated to the UK illegally, Mahmood said they will be left with no choice but to apply sanctions.
"In Britain, we play by the rules. When I said there would be penalties for countries that do not take back criminals and illegal immigrants, I meant it. My message to foreign governments today is clear: accept the return of your citizens or lose the privilege of entering our country," she threatened yesterday.
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Mahmood is set to lay out the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration the UK in modern times, which will reportedly be modelled on the Danish system that makes a country less attractive for illegal immigrants and makes it easier to deport them.
The government is also considering an "emergency brake" on visas for nationals of countries whose citizens make high numbers of asylum claims despite entering the UK legally.
While asylum applications have risen, the number of initial approvals issued by UK authorities dropped between 2023 and 2024, according to recent government data.
Last year, it was reported that the number of Namibians seeking asylum in the UK has skyrocketed in recent years, jumping from 27 in 2016 to over 1 400 in 2024.
This surpasses the number of asylum seekers from war-torn countries like Sudan, Syria and Afghanistan, according to statistics provided by the British government at the time.
The number of asylum seekers from Namibia to the UK began to rise after the UK government did away with the working holiday visa arrangement for all countries in 2016. In 2017, the number of Namibians seeking asylum in the UK increased to 101, followed by 265 in 2018 and 436 in 2019.
During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the number decreased to 228, then further to 137 in 2021.
However, by June 2023, the number of refugee applications skyrocketed to 1 428, making Namibia the 15th-largest source of asylum requests. It was reported that some 90% of Namibian applications for asylum in the UK were rejected in 2023.
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