Figures show asylum seekers applying to UK highest in two decades

The UK’s migrant crisis has continued deteriorating, according to new figures published by the Home Office this morning. There was a 19 percent increase in the number of asylum applications to the UK in the year ending June 2023. 78,768 applied to come here over the period. The Government says this is ‘higher than at the time of the European migration crisis’ when 36,545 applied to come here in the year ending June 2016. It is the highest number of applications for a whopping two decades. The Government says there has been a return to pre-pandemic levels of decisions on asylum applications, with 23,702 initial decisions made in the year ending June 2023, 61 percent more than 2022. In 2019, the last year prior to the Covid pandemic, 20,766 decisions were made. However more than 7 in 10 of those decisions were to grant asylum. In the Government’s own words, this is ‘substantially higher’ than pre-pandemic years, when only around one-third of applications were successful at initial decisions. Prior to recent years, the highest grant rate was over 30 years ago, when 82 percent of applicants were awarded asylum in 1990. Figures also show the state of crisis on the channel, with 52,530 ‘irregular migrants’ detected entering the UK – 85 percent of whom arrived via small boats. This is a 17 percent increase on the year ending June 2022.