Record numbers of asylum applications have been made this year (Image: PA )
of small boat migrants crossing the English Channel have been deported since 2018.
And more than 108,000 people applied for asylum in the UK last year, the highest number for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001, figures show.
The total of 108,138 asylum seekers is up 18% from 91,811 in 2023, according to data published by the Home Office.
in the 12 months to December 2002. Migrants who made the journey to the UK across the English Channel in small boats accounted for 32% of the total in 2024.
The numbers also show just 4,995 of the 147,849 small boat arrivals since 2018 have sent back to their home countries.
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told : “With no deterrent, and an obsession with rewarding criminal migrants with British passports, today’s figures are no surprise.
“Despite promising to end hotel usage for asylum seekers, the numbers are up again and they are costing Britons dear . . . waves of illegals crossing the Channel.”
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Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp (Image: PA )
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.
Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle said on Thursday that the Government is “on track” to close more asylum hotels next month as decision-making on claims has increased by 52% in the last three months of 2024, as part of efforts to clear the backlog.
The UK has seen record asylum applications (Image: PA )
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There were 124,802 people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application at the end of December – down 6% 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.
A No 10 spokesman said the asylum system had been “broken” over the last six years but within six months the new Government had put in place a “serious long-term plan”.
The Government has set up a Border Security Command, increased return figures and produced plans for a “world-first” smuggling sanctions regime, the spokesman added.
It comes as Labour’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which scraps the ‘ Rwanda plan and introduces new offences to crack down on people smuggling across the English Channel, continues through Parliament.
The data shows that the most common nationality among asylum applicants in 2024 was Pakistani, accounting for 10,542 people or 9.7% of the total.
Afghan was the second most common nationality (8,508 people, 7.9% of the total), down from 9,710 (10.6%) 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% of the total), up from 2,469 (2.7%) in 2023.
Elsewhere, the Home Office figures revealed 269,621 grants of British citizenship were made in 2024 – more than in any calendar year since comparable data began in 1962 and up 30% from 206,619 in 2023. The previous record was 208,095 grants in 2013.
The release comes as the Home Office updated guidance earlier this month to make it clear that anyone who enters the UK illegally, including by crossing the English Channel, will “normally” have a British citizenship application refused.