Asylum claims soar to highest rate in 19 years

ASYLUM claims have more than doubled in a year and hit the highest level for nearly two decades, figures show.

The Home Office said there were 55,146 asylum applications in the year to March, not including dependants – up 102 per cent on the previous 12 months and up 56 per cent on pre-pandemic levels.

Of those, 31,703 arrived by small boat across the Channel. The total number of asylum claims surpassed levels seen in the 2015-16 Syrian migrant crisis to hit the highest point since 2003.

Priti Patel’s department made 14,603 initial decisions on asylum applications during the period, of which 75 per cent – 10,884 – were granted, the highest proportion since 1990. It came as the Home Secretary faced a growing legal battle to implement her scheme to send migrants to Rwanda to claim asylum.

Amid a record backlog of nearly 110,000 cases, the number of migrants receiving taxpayer-funded support rose above 85,000, up from 61,000 the previous year. Miss Patel said she was setting up an ‘asylum action group’ to speed up processing. Deportations slumped for the ninth year in a row, down 18 per cent year-onyear to 2,800 – the lowest on record.