Asylum statistics

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 appeal process and, if successful, may be granted leave to remain.

Asylum applications

• In 2023, 67,337 applications for asylum were made in the UK, which related to 84,425 individuals (more than one applicant can be included in a single application).

• The annual 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. It rose steadily throughout the 2010s, then rapidly from 2021 onwards to reach 81,130 applications in 2022, the highest annual number since 2002.

Proportion of all migrants who are asylum seekers and refugees

• Asylum seekers made up around 6% of immigrants to the UK in 2019.

• In 2020, when overall immigration was lower than usual due to the pandemic, asylum seekers might have made up around 12% of immigrants.

• In 2023, asylum seekers and refugees made up around 11% of immigrants to the UK. If including the British National (Overseas) scheme in the category of humanitarian routes, up to 14% of immigration in that year would fall into that category.

Decisions and refusals

• Not all asylum applications are successful. In 2023, 33% were refused at initial decision (not counting withdrawals). The annual refusal rate was highest in 2004 (88%) and lowest in recent times in 2022 (24%).

• When an application is refused at initial decision, it may be appealed. Between 2004 to 2021, around three-quarters of applicants refused asylum at initial decision lodged an appeal and almost one third of those appeals were allowed.

Asylum caseload

• As of June 2024, the total ‘work in progress’ asylum caseload consisted of 224,700 cases. Of these, around 87,200 cases were awaiting an initial decision and 137,500 cases had received an initial refusal and were awaiting some kind of further action.

• The total asylum caseload has quadrupled in size since 2014, driven both by applicants waiting longer for an initial decision and a growth in the number of people subject to removal action following a negative decision.

Small boats

• The Covid-19 pandemic reduced the number of asylum seekers arriving by air routes in 2020 and 2021. However, during this time the number of people arriving in small boats across the Channel (most of whom applied for asylum) rose substantially.

• In 2023, around 28,400 people arrived in small boats, 99% of whom applied for asylum. These individuals accounted for just under one third (31%) of all asylum applicants in 2023.

Nationality of asylum seekers and refugees

• In 2023, the most common origin region of asylum seekers was Asia and the most common single nationality was Afghan. In previous recent years, the Middle East was the most common origin region, with Syrian and Iranian the most common nationalities.

Resettlement

• Between 2014 and June 2024, 59,000 people were resettled or relocated to the UK through various schemes. Around 20,000 of these were Syrians resettled between 2014 and 2020. Since 2021, 29,000 people from Afghanistan have been resettled or relocated to the UK through various schemes.

• In 2022, two new routes were introduced for Ukrainians. As of September 2024, around 213,000 people had arrived under these schemes. This flow was much larger in scale than any other single forced migration flow to the UK in recent history. The number of Ukrainian refugees who arrived in the UK in 2022 was equivalent to the number of people granted refuge in the UK from all origins, in total, between 2014 and 2021.

European context

• In 2022, there were around 13 asylum applications for every 10,000 people living in the UK. Across the EU27 there were 25 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 17^th among EU27 countries plus the UK on this measure.