MigrationWatchdog

Northern Ireland

Asylum support across Northern Ireland's 9 local authorities, as at 31 Mar 2026.

2,379
asylum seekers supported
as at 31 Mar 2026 · source
12.3
per 10,000 residents (mid-2024)
mid-2025 (one year earlier where the latest estimate is not yet published) · source
2,064
in dispersal accommodation
as at 31 Mar 2026 · source
236
in contingency accommodation
as at 31 Mar 2026 · source
236
of which in hotels
as at 31 Mar 2026 · source

Northern Ireland carries 2.4% of the UK's supported asylum caseload — 12.3 per 10,000 residents against its mid-2024 population estimate of 1,927,855. The largest concentration is in Belfast (1,607). All UK authorities →

The last 12 quarters

3.3k030 Jun 202331 Mar 202630 Jun 2023 — 3,28230 Sep 2023 — 3,16931 Dec 2023 — 2,77331 Mar 2024 — 2,74830 Jun 2024 — 2,53030 Sep 2024 — 2,63231 Dec 2024 — 2,73031 Mar 2025 — 2,63630 Jun 2025 — 2,53530 Sep 2025 — 2,56631 Dec 2025 — 2,60831 Mar 2026 — 2,379
People in receipt of Home Office asylum support across Northern Ireland, quarterly snapshots — sum of the region's local authorities. Asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support by local authority, year ending March 2026 (Home Office, Immigration system statistics).

The legal route, regionally

Alongside asylum dispersal, Northern Ireland's authorities have received 1,664 people through formal resettlement schemes since 2014 (none in the last four published quarters).

four quarters to 2026 Q1, and cumulative since 2014 · source

Every authority in Northern Ireland

Asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support, by local authority
BelfastNorthern Ireland1,607——1,539
Derry City and StrabaneNorthern Ireland228——224
Antrim and NewtownabbeyNorthern Ireland21212712785
Causeway Coast and GlensNorthern Ireland20010910988
Armagh City, Banbridge and CraigavonNorthern Ireland87——87
Newry, Mourne and DownNorthern Ireland33——32
Lisburn and CastlereaghNorthern Ireland9——9
Fermanagh and OmaghNorthern Ireland2———
Ards and North DownNorthern Ireland1———
Counts are people supported at the snapshot date, by the local authority of their registered address; contingency sites open and close between quarters. The table lists only authorities with supported people — authorities with none are omitted by the source, but the population denominator is the published region-level estimate, not a sum of the rows shown. Numbers say where the asylum system places people — they say nothing about any individual.

Data as of

Sources for this page