A significant cohort of the so-called “Boriswave” of migrants that flooded the country following post-Brexit immigration reforms under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is entirely unaccounted for, as the government failed to record data on whether they left the country, switched work visas, or are remaining in the country illegally.

However, many such migrants likely entered as family members of social care workers until chain migration was banned for the category the following year, after which the number of visas fell tenfold, falling from 107,772 in 2023 to just 9,539 in 2024, The Telegraph reported. The social care immigration route was ultimately scrapped earlier this year.

According to the broadsheet, the government’s care minister, Stephen Kinnock, told parliament that his department “does not hold data that directly links visa status to ongoing employment in adult social care or residence in the United Kingdom over time.”