Number of immigrants granted asylum at record high as annual small boat crossings fall, figures show
22 August 2024, 15:43
The numbers of migrants successfully claiming asylum has reached the highest levels since records began, according to Home Office statistics.
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Thursday’s figures show 67,978 asylum seekers were granted refugee status in the year to June - more than three times the amount in the year prior when 21,436 claims were granted.
The figures also showed however that small boat crossings fell by 29% in the year to June 2024 - a statistic former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak targeted during his tenure.
Mr Sunak was also vocal on reducing work visas, student visas, and visas for dependents of students coming to the UK and these numbers all fell when compared with the year before.
These figures point to the policies of the previous Conservative government taking effect yet Labour may still find cause for criticism with a large number of cases remaining open.
Some 99% of those coming to the UK on small boats apply for asylum but 96% of those claims are still undecided.
This comes despite Mr Sunak setting a target to remove a backlog of 92,000 historic cases within a year in December 2022.
The former Prime Minister introduced fast-track schemes and tripled the number of caseworkers making decisions as he looked to clear a backlog of cases.
Read more: Nearly 500 migrants cross English Channel in a single day
Despite the number of open claims for small boat arrivals remaining high, caseworkers made almost 92,000 initial decisions on claims - the highest number in 20 years.
This, along with the increase in successful claims meant the UK’s total backlog of cases fell by almost a third, from 175,457 at the end of June 2023 to 118,882 people at the end of June this year.
The ‘grant rate’ of these decisions - the proportion of asylum applications which lead to refugee status at the initial stage - was 58 per cent.
This was down from 71 per cent in the year ending June 2023 but was an increase on pre-pandemic rates of about a third.
The statistics also revealed that the number of migrants being granted citizenship in the UK was at its highest in more than 50 years.
Some 246,488 people were granted British citizenship in the year ending June 2024, more than a third (37 per cent) more than the previous year to June 2023.
The most common non-EU nationalities granted British citizenship were Indian, Pakistani , and Nigerian nationals.
Seema Malhotra, Minister for Migration and Citizenship, said: “Today’s stats show the chaos the Tories left in our immigration and asylum system. Since 2019, net migration trebled to a record high.
“Despite the hundreds of millions pumped into the Rwanda partnership, small boat crossings for the first half of this year went up by almost 20 per cent. The asylum backlog has soared, costing the taxpayer billions. And the removal of foreign national offenders has dropped 20 per cent since 2010.”
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly, who is running to be the leader of the Conservative Party, claimed the visa figures were proof measures put in place when he was in office were taking effect.
“When I said I was going to cut migration, I meant it,” he said, adding: “The actions I took as home secretary are working. I reformed visas and cut net migration... that’s the inheritance I left Labour.”
