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Asylum is protection given by a country to someone fleeing from persecution in their own country. An asylum seeker is someone who has applied for asylum and is awaiting a decision on whether they will be granted refugee status. An asylum applicant who does not qualify for refugee status may still be granted leave to remain in the UK for humanitarian or other reasons. An asylum seeker whose application is refused at initial decision may appeal the decision through an appeals process and, if successful, may be granted leave to remain.

  • The number of asylum applications to the UK peaked in 2002 at 84,132. After that the number fell sharply to reach a twenty-year low point of 17,916 in 2010, before rising again to reach 35,737 in 2019.
  • The percentage of asylum applicants refused at initial decision reached its highest point at 88% in 2004. After that, the percentage of applicants refused at initial decision fell to 59% in 2014, then rose again before dropping to 42% in 2019.
  • Asylum seekers made up around 6% of immigrants to the UK in 2018.
  • In the period from 2004 to 2019, around three-quarters of applicants refused asylum at initial decision lodged an appeal and almost one third of those appeals was allowed.
  • In 2019, 29% of asylum applicants were nationals of Asian countries, 27% were nationals of Middle Eastern countries, 24% were nationals of African countries, and 14% were from Europe.
  • Between January 2014 and March 2020, 26,308 people were resettled to the UK, mainly from Syria and the surrounding region. Resettlement accounted for around 22% of the people granted humanitarian protection in the UK since 2014.
  • In 2019, there were around 5 asylum applications for every 10,000 people resident in the UK. Across the EU28 there were 14 asylum applications for every 10,000 people. The UK was therefore below the average among EU countries for asylum applications per head of population, ranking 17th among EU28 countries on this measure.

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