Key figures, answered directly
Every headline figure this site publishes, in one place, each with the period it covers and a link to the official source it came from.
Each figure below is generated from the same data the individual pages render — this page cannot show a different number from the page it links to.
Home
Independent watchdog tracking illegal and irregular immigration to the UK: small-boat crossings, asylum-system costs, foreign national offenders, deportation failures and local impacts. Every figure links to its official source.
- Small-boat arrivals, latest week
- 1,176 (week ending 2 August 2026 · source)
- Small-boat arrivals this year
- 14,561 (1 January to 6 August 2026 · source)
- People awaiting an initial asylum decision
- 48,758 (as at 31 March 2026 · source)
- Asylum seekers in hotels
- 20,885 (as at 31 Mar 2026 · source)
- Enforced returns
- 9,723 (year ending March 2026 · source)
- Asylum support spend
- £4bn (FY 2024-25 · source)
Arrivals
Small-boat Channel crossings tracked weekly from Home Office data: latest week, cumulative year comparisons, monthly trend since 2018, annual totals and claimant demographics.
- Arrivals, latest week
- 1,176 (15 boats) (week ending 2 August 2026 · source)
- Arrivals this year so far
- 14,561 (1 January to 6 August 2026 · source)
- Arrivals, 2025 (official)
- 41,472 (calendar year 2025 · source)
- Top nationality of arrivals
- Eritrea (7,602) (calendar year 2025 · source)
- Adult-male share of arrivals
- 75.9% (calendar year 2025 · source)
- Total long-term net migration (ALL routes, overwhelmingly lawful — context only, not irregular migration)
- 171,000 (year ending Dec 2025 (provisional) · source)
- Share of arrivals claiming asylum or receiving an NRM referral
- 99% (arrival year 2025 · source)
Asylum
Asylum claims since 2010, the backlog and how long people wait, grant rates including small-boat claims by nationality, inadmissibility, and the support system that houses claimants.
- People claiming asylum
- 93,525 (Year ending March 2026 · source)
- Awaiting an initial decision
- 48,758 (as at 31 March 2026 · source)
- Backlog peak
- 175,457 (as at 30 Jun 2023 · source)
- Waiting 12 months or more
- 17,668 (as at 31 March 2026 · source)
- Asylum-related grants
- 48,581 (Year ending March 2026 · source)
- Small-boat claim grant rate at initial decision
- 49% (Year ending March 2026 · source)
- In receipt of Home Office support
- 97,519 (as at 31 March 2026 · source)
Appeals
The live asylum-appeals series: First-tier Tribunal receipts, outcomes and open caseload, plus the Home Office cohort analysis showing final grant rates including appeals.
- Open appeals at the First-tier Tribunal (IAC)
- 151,767 (at end of 2025/26 Q4 · source)
- of which asylum/protection
- 87,450 (at end of 2025/26 Q4 · source)
- Asylum appeals allowed
- 45% (financial year 2024/25 · source)
- 2022 claim cohort grant rate, initial vs latest
- 60% vs 67% (claim cohorts 2010 to 2024 · source)
Nationalities
The published nationality tables side by side: illegal-route arrivals per year, asylum claims, grant rates and backlogs by nationality, and — separately, with its own caveats — foreign nationals in prison.
- Largest illegal-route arrival nationality
- Eritrea (7,602) (calendar year 2025 · source)
- Eritrea asylum claims and grant rate
- 8,212 claims, 87% granted at initial decision (Year ending March 2026 · source)
- Largest foreign-national group in prison (separate register, E&W)
- Albanian (943) (as at 30 June 2026 · source)
Costs
Asylum support spending, hotel costs and accommodation contract totals — every figure a verified citation from the National Audit Office or Home Office accounts.
- Asylum support spend, 2024-25
- £4bn (FY 2024-25 · source)
- Asylum accommodation contracts — original 10-year estimate
- £4.5bn (2019–2029 contract term · source)
- Asylum accommodation contracts — current 10-year estimate
- £15.3bn (2019–2029 contract term · source)
- Hotels' share of asylum accommodation contract cost
- 76% (first seven months of FY 2024-25 · source)
- Immigration detention cost per person per day
- £148.41 (2026 Q1 · source)
- Home Office's own unit cost per asylum conclusion
- £25,122 (financial year 2023/24 · source)
- Total asylum costs (department's own accounting)
- £4.76bn (financial year 2024/25 · source)
- Provider payments in the £25k+ transparency disclosures
- Clearsprings £464.2m, Mears £81.7m, Serco £222.8m across 17 months (January 2025 to May 2026 · source)
Crime & Justice
Foreign national offenders in prison and in the community, deportation and returns data, and organised immigration crime — from Ministry of Justice and Home Office statistics.
- Foreign nationals in prison (E&W)
- 10,134 (11.8% of prisoners) (as at 30 June 2026 · source)
- FNOs subject to deportation action living in the community
- 19,779 (as at end of 2026 Q1 · source)
- Total returns
- 39,007 (year ending March 2026 · source)
- Enforced returns
- 9,723 (year ending March 2026 · source)
- FNO returns
- 5,858 (year ending March 2026 · source)
- Largest FNO-return offence group
- Drug offences (1,865) (year ending December 2025 · source)
- Small-boat arrivals returned (published cohort)
- 2,750 (year ending March 2026 · source)
- Left detention by removal vs bail
- 9,916 removed vs 11,406 bailed (Year ending March 2026 · source)
Integration
English language proficiency, employment by country of birth, Prevent referrals by ideology, official inquiry findings on group-based child sexual exploitation, and public opinion — official sources only.
- Main language is not English (E&W)
- 5,134,447 (Census day, 21 March 2021 · source)
- Cannot speak English well or at all (E&W)
- 1,040,346 (Census day, 21 March 2021 · source)
- Prevent referrals
- 8,775 (April 2024 to March 2025 · source)
- Largest Prevent concern type
- No ideology identified (3,040) (April 2024 to March 2025 · source)
- Employment rate, UK-born vs non-UK-born
- 74.4% vs 77.2% (Jan-Mar 2026 (LFS, not seasonally adjusted) · source)
Local
Where asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support are accommodated: every UK local authority, ranked, with dispersal and contingency accommodation breakdowns.
Petitions
The largest immigration and asylum petitions on Parliament's petitions site: signature counts, where in the UK they came from, government responses and debate dates.
Legislation
Immigration and asylum bills before Parliament with their stage timelines, and how the Commons voted, from the Bills and Commons Votes APIs.
Hotels
Every official figure on asylum hotel accommodation: the quarterly population and its peak, the local authorities where hotel places are recorded, and the audited cost of hotel use.
- Asylum seekers in contingency hotels
- 20,885 (as at 31 Mar 2026 · source)
- Hotel population peak
- 56,018 (30 Sep 2023) (31 Mar 2014 to 31 Mar 2026 · source)
- Local authorities with recorded hotel places
- 115 (as at 31 Mar 2026 · source)
- Hotels' share of asylum accommodation contract cost
- 76% (first seven months of FY 2024-25 · source)
The machine-readable versions
The same figures are published as llms.txt and llms-full.txt for language models, and every underlying series is downloadable as CSV or JSON from the data page. Corrections to anything on this site are logged at /corrections.
Data as of
Cite this page
Key figures, answered directly. Migration Watchdog, data as of 2026-08-18. https://migrationwatchdog.com/answers Underlying figures: UK official statistics, re-published under OGL v3.0 — every figure links to its source on the page.