The number of people claiming asylum in the UK hit a record high last year, new figures have revealed.
A total of 108,138 people applied for asylum in the UK in 2024, according to data published by the Home Office on Thursday – the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001. The previous record was 103,081 in the 12 months to December 2002, while the latest number is up 18 per cent from 91,811 in 2023.
Migrants who arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel in small boats accounted for 32 per cent of the total number of people claiming asylum in 2024. There were 37,000 small boat arrivals in 2024, 25 per cent more than the previous year, although 20 per cent fewer than in 2022.
Meanwhile, the data shows 38,079 asylum seekers were being housed temporarily in hotels at the end of December, up 2,428 from 35,651 at the end of September. This is the second quarterly rise in a row, although the figure is still some way below the recent peak of 56,042 at the end of September 2023.
Asylum seekers and their families are housed in temporary accommodation if they are waiting for the outcome of a claim or an appeal and have been assessed as not being able to support themselves independently. They are housed in hotels if there is not enough space in accommodation provided by local authorities or other organisations.
The rise comes as the government plans to close nine more asylum hotels by the end of March.
Responding to the figures on Thursday, Marley Morris, from the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, said: “If the Home Office wants to end the use of hotels, it will need to double down on efforts to improve the speed and quality of decision-making. Applications should be triaged early and decisions for high-grant nationalities should be streamlined.
“Crucially, the government must take care that its efforts to accelerate decision-making do not result in these cases simply shifting over into appeals.”
There were 124,802 people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application at the end of December – down 6 per cent from 133,409 at the end of September. The total peaked at 175,457 at the end of June 2023, which was the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
The number of people waiting more than six months for an initial decision was 73,866 at the end of December, down from 83,888 at the end of September and well below the recent peak of 139,961 in June 2023.
Meanwhile, the number of quarterly enforced returns of people who do not have a right to stay in the UK has risen to the highest level in more than six years. Some 2,364 enforced returns took place in October to December 2024, up 15 per cent on the previous quarter and a jump of 23 per cent on the same period in 2023, the figures show.
The data also shows that the most common nationality among asylum applicants in 2024 was Pakistani, accounting for 10,542 people or 9.7 per cent of the total. Afghan was the second most common nationality (8,508 people, 7.9 per cent of the total), down from 9,710 (10.6 per cent) in 2023, when it was the most common. Along with Pakistan, the largest increase in asylum claims in 2024 came from Vietnamese nationals, at 5,259 (4.9 per cent of the total), up from 2,469 (2.7 per cent) in 2023.
Responding to the latest migration data, a No 10 spokesman said: “Over the last six years, legal migration skyrocketed, a global criminal smuggling industry was allowed to establish itself and the asylum system was broken. The system we inherited had tens of thousands stuck in a backlog, claims not being processed, and costs spiralling through the use of expensive hotels.
“But within just six months we had put in place a serious long-term plan to restore order to the asylum system. We have set up the border security command, surged returns figures to the highest levels for more than a decade and produced plans for a world-first people smuggling sanctions regime, and introduced game-changing legislation to smash smuggling gangs.”
Asked if the Government was confident the current year’s figure would be lower as a result of its actions, the spokesman pointed towards action ministers have taken since the election, including the removal of 19,000 failed asylum seekers.
