Where ‘soft-touch’ Britain’s asylum seekers are REALLY coming from

Citizens from the US, Australia and Scandinavia are trying to claim asylum in Britain, official figures suggest.

Asylum claims have spiralled to all-time highs in the wake of the small boats fiasco, with 108,000 applications lodged in 2024. 

Pakistan was the most common country of origin (10,542), followed by Afghanistan (8,508), Iran (8,099), Bangladesh (7,225) and Syria (6,680).

Those five countries alone made up 38 per cent of all asylum applications last year.

Yet critics argue that applications of residents from wealthy Western countries with no major human rights abuses are proof that we’ve become a ‘soft touch’. 

In 2024, there were 99 claims from the US, 22 from Italy, 20 from Portugal, 17 from France, and 10 from Australia.

Separately, applications also came from the oil-rich states of Kuwait (1,936), Bahrain (203) and Saudi Arabia (202), as well as the Caribbean tourist hotspots of Trinidad and Tobago (444), St Vincent and the Grenadines (102) and Antigua and Barbuda (16).

To be eligible for asylum, the Home Office states: ‘You must have left your country and be unable to go back because you fear persecution.’

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Migrants wave to a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France on April 26, 2024

The Home Office uses the claimant’s primary/preferred nationality for dual nationals. In cases where there is a disputed nationality, officials log what they believe is true.

Robert Bates, of the Centre for Migration Control, told MailOnline: ‘Our asylum system is far too generous and is one of the most easily accessible in the world. 

‘It is incapable of weeding out individuals who are simply economic migrants that are chancing their arm. 

‘This is why people from peaceful and prosperous countries are lodging claims here, because they are all but guaranteed access to state handouts and support for their desired lifestyle. 

‘If they were genuine asylum seekers then they would have no qualms in resettling somewhere closer to their homeland, where the cultural and societal norms are more familiar.

‘But Britain is now seen as the land of milk and honey.’

The Home Office states that individuals claiming asylum in the UK must demonstrate they are unable to live safely in any part of their home country due to a well-founded fear of persecution. 

This could be based on their race, religion, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, political opinion, or any other factor that places them at risk due to the social, cultural, religious, or political situation in their country. 

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Only once asylum seekers are officially granted refugee status or another  humanitarian protection status are they allowed to work, study and claim benefits such as Universal Credit in the UK. 

When it came to initial asylum applications from the US, 13 were granted and 45 refused in 2024 – giving an approval rate of 22 per cent. 

Of the grants, four were given humanitarian protection status and nine refugee status.

Almost all claims from countries experiencing ongoing conflict such as Syria (98 per cent) and Sudan (99 per cent) were granted.

Albania had one of the lowest rates (3.7 per cent).

On average in 2024, 53 per cent of applications were refused at initial decision – not counting withdrawals. 

However, there have been a number of high-profile cases of former asylum seekers being allowed to stay due to extremely controversial reasons.

One such case from earlier this year involved an immigration tribunal ruling that an Albanian criminal would be allowed to stay because his son had a ‘distaste’ for foreign chicken nuggets.

As well as breaking down asylum seekers by nationality, the data also breaks it down by gender. 

It reveals that in 2024, three-quarters of applicants were male. 

The data shows that asylum seekers are also overwhelmingly young, with two-thirds aged under 30. Just 4 per cent were over 50.

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A worried group gather in Manchester in November 2024 to protest against asylum seekers being housed locally

What is an asylum seeker? 

Asylum is protection given by a country to someone fleeing from persecution in their own country. 

An asylum seeker is someone who has applied for asylum and is awaiting a decision on whether they will be granted refugee status. 

An asylum applicant who does not qualify for refugee status may still be granted leave to remain in the UK for humanitarian or other reasons. 

An asylum seeker whose application is refused at initial decision may appeal the decision through an appeal process and, if successful, may be granted leave to remain. 

Britain now spends £5.4billion on asylum, including housing some in hotels and giving them £49.18 per week if their accomodation does not provide meals. 

Before the small boats crisis unfolded in the English channel, the annual bill for the entire asylum system stood in the region of £732m.

The route was almost never used prior to 2018 but since then, around 148,000 people have made the journey – often paying £5,000 to criminal gangs for a one way ticket.

Criminal gangs from Albania have been seen brazenly advertising a life in the UK on social media, enticing them with jobs in illegal cannabis ‘farms’.

Small boat arrivals now make-up nearly a third of all asylum claims.

Others arrive through legal routes such as on a student visa before they lodge an application. 

In March there was a report that detailed at least a 100-fold increase in the number of foreign nationals arriving here as ‘skilled workers’ and then claiming to be refugees. 

Asylum claims made by this category of visa-holder jumped from 53 in 2022 to 5,300 in the first ten months of last year.

Alp Mehmet, the chairman for Migration Watch UK, said: ‘The diverse nationalities now claiming asylum shows what a soft touch we’ve become and that the system is not only a huge cost to the taxpayer but also not fit for purpose.

‘For so long as the government remains in denial about the total failure of its policies, both the flow of illegal migrants and the costs will go on climbing.’

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Pictured: An inflatable dinghy carrying migrants makes its way towards England

When an application is refused at initial decision, it may be appealed. 

Between 2004 and 2021, around three-quarters of applicants refused asylum at initial decision lodged an appeal. Nearly a third of those appeals were allowed.

However, the quality of decision-making is often poor, with many refugees having to rely on the courts to award protection following an appeal of the Government’s initial decision, according to The Refugee Council.

The appeals process can be complex and lengthy, with people seeking asylum having to wait months in state-provided accommodation for their appeals to be heard.

Mr Bates said: ‘Our asylum system is a huge drain on the public finances. 

‘We must implement a strong deportation programme along with an effective freeze on new applications until, at least, we have got our house in order and costs under control. 

‘This is the only way to deter would-be economic migrants from attempting to take advantage of our hospitality.’

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The West London borough of Hillingdon (pictured) is Britain’s asylum seeker hotspot

It should be noted that while most grants of refuge have historically come via the UK’s in-country asylum process, others have come via resettlement schemes following specific cases involving countries such as Ukraine, Syria, Hong Kong, and Afghanistan. 

This means refugees from these schemes are not recorded in the figures for general asylum seekers. 

These numbers can be quite significant, for instance, the number of Ukrainian refugees who arrived in the UK in 2022 (155,000) was around the same as the number of people granted refuge in the UK from all origins, in total, between 2014 and 2021. 

Although Ukrainians arriving under these schemes are often referred to as refugees,  they do not have the legal status as refugees that are granted asylum in the usual way. 

Instead they derive their right to live and work in the UK from the conditions of the visa schemes.

The Home Office has previously claimed the government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain and that it is determined to restore order to the operation.

It said it remains resolute in its commitment to remove those with no legal right to be in the UK. 

Since the election, it said it has returned 6,781 failed asylum seekers, a 23 per cent increase in the same period 12 months prior 

The Home Office has been contacted for further comment. 

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