New figures from the Home Office show that more people are arriving in the UK by small boat than last year, but there’s been progress in other areas. The number of people crossing the English Channel in small boats has gone up by 22% in just one year. However, the number of people waiting for an asylum decision and the use of hotels to house asylum seekers have both dropped since the Labour government took over from the Conservatives.
The rise in small boat arrivals has sparked fresh pressure on the government to create more safe and legal ways for people to come to the UK. Many of those arriving are from countries suffering from war or instability, such as Afghanistan, Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, and Iran. In fact, the first few months of this year saw a big increase in arrivals from the Horn of Africa.
Despite the rise in arrivals, the government has also stepped up its efforts to remove people who don’t have the right to stay. Since Labour came into power, nearly 30,000 failed asylum seekers and foreign criminals have been deported. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says forced returns have increased by 23%, with 14% more foreign offenders sent home compared to before Labour took office.
Labour has also made a deal with the EU to crack down on people smugglers. This includes sharing information like fingerprints and DNA, and working on deals to return people who have no right to remain in the UK. Prime Minister Keir Starmer says this is part of a bigger plan to reduce illegal migration.
Campaigners, however, say these statistics show the government still has a lot of work to do. Many people coming to the UK in small boats can’t apply for asylum in their home countries or in other countries they travel through. As a result, they say the only real way to stop people smugglers is by opening up more safe and legal routes for asylum seekers. The current system forces desperate people to take dangerous journeys.
In total, there were 51,710 irregular arrivals in the year to March, and over 43,000 of those came by small boat—about 86% of the total. Some also arrived by plane without permission or were caught at other entry points like ports.
The number of people asking for asylum is also at a record high. In the year to March, 109,000 people applied, which was a 17% increase from the year before. Since 2021, the number has nearly doubled. Around one-third of these applicants arrived by small boat, while more than a third came legally on visas. The UK is now the fifth most common destination for asylum seekers in Europe, behind Germany, Spain, Italy, and France.
The backlog of asylum cases is also improving. At the end of March, there were 79,000 unresolved cases affecting 110,000 people. That’s 9% less than the year before, and 41% less than when the system was at its worst under the Tories, when 134,000 cases were waiting for decisions.
There’s also been a drop in the use of hotels. These were costing the country £8 million a day at one point due to the sheer number of people waiting. Now, the number of people being housed in hotels has dropped to about 32,000—a 15% fall since the end of 2024 and a 42% drop from the highest levels seen in September 2023. Most people receiving asylum support are now living in other types of housing or receiving financial help only.
But not everything is improving. The percentage of asylum claims being approved has dropped from 61% last year to just 49% now. The government says this is because of new rules under the Nationality and Borders Act introduced by the previous Conservative administration, which made it harder for people to meet the asylum requirements.
In short, the number of small boat arrivals is rising, but the government is removing more people, reducing the number of people in hotels, and cutting down the asylum backlog. Still, campaigners say the only real solution is to open up more safe routes for people fleeing war and persecution so they don’t have to risk their lives trying to get here.
