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Based on the 1951 Convention on Refugees, anyone who has a well-founded fear of persecution can claim asylum in the UK, be that based on their race, religion, nationality, sexuality or other reason. They must be in the UK to do so.
A record 111,084 people claimed asylum in the UK in the latest year to June 2025, the highest number in figures collected since 2002. Around two in five – 41,870 – of those were made by people who arrived in small boats.
The increase in claims has mostly been driven by people seeking asylum from countries in South Asia, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa.
The number of claims was relatively low between 2006 and 2021, before increasing rapidly in recent years.
Over the whole period from 2002 to 2005, the top five nationalities of those claiming asylum were Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Eritrea. Asylum claims from Middle Eastern countries were highest between 2022 and 2023, while asylum claims from Eritreans and Pakistanis have continued to increase in recent years.
The most common nationalities of those seeking asylum are often those from countries experiencing war and violent persecution, seen, for example, in the surge in refugees coming from Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover in 2021.
Increasing numbers of asylum seekers have arrived in the UK by irregular routes, mostly on small boats across the English Channel – with Afghans and Eritreans making up the largest proportion of small boat arrivals in the last year.
In the latest year to June 2025, the greatest number of asylum claims were from people from Pakistan, at 11,234, followed by Afghanistan at 8,281, Iran at 7,746, and Eritrea at 7,433.
The majority of asylum claims come from younger men aged under 50, who represented 59% of asylum seekers in the latest figures, followed by children, at 22%.
There were 19,471 children among people claiming asylum, more than double from 7,672 a decade earlier, while the number of men under 30…
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