About Migration Watchdog

What this site is

A measurement site. It tracks the scale of illegal and irregular entry to the UK, what the asylum system costs the taxpayer, foreign national offending and the enforcement record, integration evidence, and the local footprint of asylum accommodation — using official statistics, official inquiry findings and audited public spending reports, each linked at the point of use. It is unapologetically critical of the failure to control the border, because that is what the numbers, plainly read, describe: a decade of rising irregular arrivals, a support system whose accommodation contracts are now estimated at three times their original cost, and an enforcement effort that removes a fraction of those with no right to be here.

What this site is not

• Not anti-migrant. The failure documented here is a failure of the state and of policy — not of any individual seeking a better life, and not of the lawful migrants who make up the large majority of migration to the UK.
• Not about legal migration, except where context requires the distinction — which this site always draws.
• Not a campaign. It is not affiliated with any political party, campaign group or movement, and it endorses nothing and nobody.
• Not a news site. It publishes numbers with sources, on the cadence the underlying statistics are published.

Non-affiliation

Migration Watchdog is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Migration Watch UK (migrationwatchuk.org) or any similarly named organisation.

Independence and funding

Self-funded by its operator. No advertising, no donations, no political funding, no paid content. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on this page first.

Editorial rules

• No invented numbers. Every figure carries its source, period and retrieval date; the site literally cannot build if one doesn't. Unverifiable figures are dropped or visibly badged.
• Legal and illegal migration are always distinguished.
• Ideologies are distinguished from individuals, and specific criminal networks from the communities they came from. Inquiry findings on sensitive subjects are quoted verbatim with page references — never paraphrased beyond the text.
• Caveats are shown where the data has them: provisional series, self-reported fields, snapshot counts, definitional limits.
• Criticism is aimed at policy and institutions. People are not the target; the failure to govern is.

The full methodology, source register and corrections policy are on the Data & Sources page.

Contact

Corrections and enquiries: [email protected]. If a figure misquotes its source, say so and it will be fixed with a dated note.