Britain’s 2025 asylum crisis: the numbers

2025 saw Britain face an unprecedented crisis in its asylum system. Below are 4 key metrics that highlight how the Labour government is failing.

The Labour government is presiding over a worsening asylum crisis. In response the Home Secretary introduced plans in November that will allow small boat migrants to obtain settlement in Britain (an effective amnesty), and will see large numbers arrive under new ‘safe and legal routes’.

Below we set out just 4 ways in which the Labour government is failing the people of this country.

Record number of asylum claims:

The year ending September 2025 saw the highest number of asylum claims on record, with 110,051 claimants. This far surpassed the previous record of 103,081 in 2002 and was 13% higher than 2024.

Just 41% of asylum claims came from those who had arrived on small boats (45,183), with another 38% of asylum applicants having initially arrived in the UK legally on a Home Office awarded visa (41,461).

For those who first arrived on a visa:

34% (14,243) held a study visa,

32% (13,427) held a work visa,

20% (8,258) held a visitor visa.

This does not mean that the visas were still valid. Many of these individuals will have been visa over-stayers (illegal migrants) who were using the asylum process to legitimise their presence in the country.

Allowing asylum claims from those who arrived to work or study is laughable, and ripe for corruption. One in ten asylum claims are made by Pakistan nationals. In the year ending September 2025, Pakistan was the top nationality for asylum claims with nearly 90% of these coming from individuals who had first arrived on a visa.

Asylum expenditure: £4.9 billion in 2024/25

The National Audit Office estimates that in FY 2024/25 the Home Office and Ministry of Justice spent a combined total of £4.9 billion on the asylum system.

Methodology devised by Jamie Jenkins at Stat of the Nation suggests that a British taxpayer earning the median salary will pay £8,081 in income tax and national insurance contributions. This means that the entire tax bill of 606,380 British workers was wiped out by the asylum system last year.

More migrants in hotels

The Labour government made a manifesto commitment to end the use of hotels by the end of the parliament.

But they are failing - miserably.

In September 2025, the number of asylum seekers in hotels was 36,273, an increase of 4,232 from June 2025, and 7,000 higher than when Labour took office.

It has also been reported that the Labour government has begun planning for asylum contracts that will run until 2039. Although these contracts may focus more on the use of HMOs or other forms of accommodation, it is clear that ministers do not envision the asylum crisis ending anytime soon.

The government is clearly panicking. As thousands continue to pour across the channel, and illegitimate claims continue to be made by those who entered on visas, it is desperately searching for alternatives to hotels.

This is why it was posited that illegal migrants be housed at the Crowborough military barracks. It is also why the government is now looking to house asylum seekers in newly-built council homes.

Removal of small boat migrants is falling

Labour ministers frequently lie about the number of illegal migrants being deported or removed from the country.

In the year ending September 2025, just 2,272 small boat migrants were removed from Britain by Labour. This is 8% lower than the number removed in the previous year. It also conceals the fact that nearly three quarters of these returns are Albanian nationals who can be sent back as the result of a bilateral deal secured by the last Conservative government.

We are now approaching 200,000 small boat crossings since the crisis began in January 2018, yet over this period just 6,787 Channel migrants have been removed.

Labour has been keen to spout that 50,000 illegal migrants and foreign national offenders have been removed since the party took office.

However, just 11,447 of these were ‘enforced returns’ (deportations). Nearly half (22,289) were ‘controlled’ or ‘other verified’ returns, where the Home Office did nothing and was simply alerted to the fact that an individual was leaving Britain (often only discovering that this had taken place long after the fact). A further 11,817 were ‘assisted returns’ where the government pays illegal migrants to leave the country.

Of the 11,447 enforced returns, 7,612 (66%) were to European countries. Just 243 (2%) were from the top 5 nationalities claiming asylum.

Conclusion

Whether it’s the aborted “smash the gangs” strategy, the failing ‘one in, one out’ deal with France (which has seen deported individuals sneak back into Britain), or Starmer’s desperate pleading with Balkan states to sign an offshore processing agreement, this Labour government has poured petrol on the asylum crisis.

The costs are a huge problem, at a time when the British taxpayer is being walloped by an incompetent Chancellor, but the far bigger problem is the social and cultural erosion that is taking place.

Each sexual assault, murder, or heinous crime committed by a small boat migrant is the direct result of Home Office failures. We know that those nationalities most likely to arrive in the UK on small boats - Afghanistan and Eritrea - are 20 times more likely to be convicted of a sexual offence than a British national, and yet the political class are happy to sit on their hands and watch the chaos unfold.