In 2024, Pakistan topped the list of countries from which the most asylum seekers arrived in the UK, followed by Afghanistan — a shift from previous years when most came from Syria and Iran.
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in her Wednesday Spending Review that the Labour government aims to eliminate the asylum application backlog and end the expensive reliance on hotels to house asylum seekers, a move projected to save £1 billion annually.
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She explained that the allocated funds will be used to speed up application processing, handle more appeals, and deport individuals with no legal right to stay in the country.
The UK has seen a significant rise in asylum applications in recent years, with tens of thousands still pending. Since Labour assumed office in July 2024, it has begun taking steps to address the issue. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in discussions with unnamed countries to establish offshore “return centres” for individuals who have exhausted their legal stay options.
Asylum seeker numbers in the UK surged to 84,200 in 2024 — three times the average annual figure of 27,500 recorded between 2011 and 2020. In 2022, the UK had around 13 asylum applications per 10,000 people, while the EU averaged 25 per 10,000 during the same period. By 2023, asylum seekers and refugees made up 11% of the UK’s migrant population, nearly doubling from 6% in 2019.
Meanwhile, there has been a sharp increase in migrants attempting to cross the English Channel in small, makeshift boats — a phenomenon that was nearly nonexistent before 2018.
