Illegal immigration and asylum: are authorities pledges on monitor?-OxBig News Network

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Rob England and Tom Edgington

BBC Verify

Getty Images Migrants onboard a rubber boat in the ChannelGetty Images

The prime minister has made tackling unlawful immigration and “restoring order” to the asylum system a precedence for the federal government.

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to “smash the gangs”. It follows predecessor Rishi Sunak’s pledge to “cease the boats”.

Yet small boat crossings have reached report ranges for this level within the yr – with about 800 migrants arriving on Wednesday alone.

BBC Verify appears to be like at key authorities pledges – from ending using asylum inns to returning extra failed asylum seekers.

‘End using asylum inns’

Labour promised to “end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds” in its normal election manifesto.

The authorities desires to fulfil this pledge by the top of this Parliament – that means by 2029, until an early election known as.

However, in keeping with figures obtained by BBC Verify by way of a Freedom of Information request, the variety of inns used to accommodate asylum seekers was larger in December than when Labour took workplace in July.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Line chart showing the number of hotels used to house asylum seekers between 2020 and December 2024. They rise from December 2020 to 2021 from about 90 to about 190. Then again in 2022 to 300 and then again in 2023 to about 400. They then lower to 218 by December 2024

In July, 212 inns have been in use. By December, there have been 218 – accommodating about 38,000 folks.

Once somebody applies for asylum, they achieve authorized protections whereas awaiting a choice – together with lodging if they can not assist themselves financially.

Almost everybody who arrives by small boat claims asylum – they made up a 3rd of all asylum purposes final yr. Another massive group of claimants have been folks already within the UK who had overstayed their visas.

The asylum course of determines whether or not an individual can stay within the UK as a result of they’ve a “well-founded concern of persecution” of their dwelling nation.

Since 2020, the federal government has been more and more reliant on inns, partly as a result of the provision of different forms of asylum lodging has not saved up with the numbers arriving in small boats.

But utilizing asylum inns is dear – costing £8m per day in 2023-24.

‘Smash the gangs’

As of 14 May, 12,699 folks had arrived within the UK in small boats – up by a 3rd in contrast with this time final yr.

To scale back the variety of crossings, the federal government has pledged to disrupt the people-smuggling gangs behind them.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Chart showing small boat crossings totals by year between 2021 and 2025. All years tend to start with lower numbers, under 10,000 until at least June, then increase significantly between August and November. 2021 is the lowest total at about 28,000, while 2022 is the highest with more than 40,000 crossings. Figures to mid May 2025 show 12,699 crossings, which is the highest so far for that point in the year of any previous years.

But it’s unclear how the federal government plans to measure its progress, or when the purpose will likely be met.

The Home Office instructed us information on actions taken by officers to disrupt legal gangs was “being collected and could also be revealed sooner or later”.

There is a few info on efforts to forestall small boat crossings by French authorities – who, beneath a 2023 deal, are receiving £476m from the UK over three years.

They say about 17,379 folks have been prevented from crossing between July and December 2024. We have no idea what occurred to them or whether or not they tried to cross once more.

There have been high-profile circumstances of UK-based smugglers being sentenced, including a man who helped smuggle more than 3,000 people and raids on the continent.

And on the current UK-EU summit each side pledged to work collectively on discovering options to sort out unlawful immigration.

Illegal migration contains individuals who arrive on small boats, or hidden in lorries, and individuals who stay within the UK after their authorized visa expires.

The overwhelming majority of UK immigration is authorized – this contains individuals who have been granted permission to come back to work, examine, declare asylum or for different authorised functions.

Last yr, about 43,000 folks entered the UK illegally – about 4% of the almost a million individuals who got here to the UK legally in 2024.

‘Clear the asylum backlog’

The authorities has additionally promised “to clear the asylum backlog“.

This refers back to the backlog of claims by asylum seekers who’re ready to listen to whether or not they are going to be granted refugee standing and be allowed to stay within the UK.

Since final summer season, there was a 50% enhance in choices on asylum circumstances.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==A line chart showing the number of decisions being made on asylum cases and the number of people applying for asylum. The number of decisions is generally lower than applications from 2020 through to late 2023. The numbers fluctuate between 5,000 and 30,000. Decisions then rapidly rise to more than 60,000 before falling back to 16,000 in early 2024. Decisions then rise in the latest quarter to about 38,000 in December 2024. Applications rise steadily throughout to about 30,000 in December 2024

But regardless of this, the UK noticed a record number of asylum applications throughout the yr, that means the general backlog has really risen for the reason that election.

Under Labour, 41% of asylum claims have been granted between October and December 2024.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Bar chart showing the backlog of asylum cases waiting to be decided on by the government. The bars hover at about 20,000 to 40,000 for most of the 2010's, starting to rise consistently in 2018 to a peak in 2023 of about 160,000. This then drops to about 120,000 - where it is now.

Another backlog the federal government desires to clear is the mountain of court docket appeals from asylum seekers following rejected claims.

That backlog has additionally acquired worse since final summer season’s election, in keeping with the most recent figures.

There have been about 33,000 circumstances on the finish of June, rising to almost 42,000 in December – the very best complete since at the very least 2015.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Line chart showing the open asylum appeals caseload. The line starts at about 9,000 in 2015, remaining below 10,000 until 2023 where it rises rapidly to the current total of 43,000.

‘Increase returns’

The authorities has additionally promised to “enhance returns” of individuals with no authorized proper to be within the UK. It mentioned it will arrange a brand new returns and enforcement unit with 1,000 further employees.

Between July 2024 (when Labour got here to energy) and May 2025, there were 29,867 returns recorded by the Home Office.

This is up 12% in comparison with the identical interval 12 months in the past.

So the federal government is assembly this pledge however it’s value noting that simply 7,893 folks have been forcibly eliminated – which might contain being escorted on a airplane by an immigration official.

The figures additionally present 8,511 failed asylum seekers have been returned on this interval however they don’t say what number of have been enforced or voluntary.

Separate authorities figures from July to December gave a fuller breakdown exhibiting lots of those that did go away voluntarily did so with out authorities help of even its data on the time, as BBC Verify has previously pointed out.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==Area chart showing immigration returns from the UK supported by the government and made independently. The chart starts in 2010 where about 12,000 returns were made, just over half were government supported. The number of all returns then falls dramatically from 2017 through to 2020, before beginning to rise again in both categories to December 2024. The latest totals are 5,773 government supported and 2,758 independent, with the government supported total rising consistently.

This is regardless of repeated claims from ministers that the federal government has “eliminated” and even “deported” this many individuals.

The Home Office says all returns outcomes are the results of collective efforts by the division.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==BBC Verify banner

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