Essentially the most asylum purposes on report – but in addition, maybe, the start of a crackdown beneath Labour.
There have been 108,138 individuals claiming asylum in 2024, beating a report that had stood for greater than 20 years.
However drill down into the numbers and, for the primary time since 2020, extra purposes had been refused than granted.
Which means regardless of a report variety of purposes, fewer individuals – 39,616 – got asylum in 2024 than in 2023 – 63,000 – beneath the Conservatives.
However on different asylum numbers promised to be decreased, the stats are much less encouraging for Labour.
First, the variety of asylum seekers in motels and different momentary lodging.
Picture:
Police outdoors a resort housing asylum seekers in Hull in the course of the riots
This issues for 2 causes. The primary is public anger on the follow. Do not forget that within the August riots, it was motels housing asylum seekers that had been focused, in a single case being set alight.
And second, for public funds. An enormous amount of cash – £4.2bn – was spent on protecting resort prices in 2023.
That was a big chunk of the UK’s overseas assist price range – 28%. With overseas assist being decreased to fund defence, getting that invoice down means the cash can go additional.
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Starmer’s overseas assist price range U-turn
However the numbers within the first six months of the Labour administration have really gone up.
The issue with that, although, is that the asylum backlog – the variety of individuals ready for an asylum choice – has elevated since Labour took energy, and stands at 90,698.
The opposite space that Labour has pledged motion on is small boats. It deserted the Conservative pledge to “Stop the Boats” in favour of “Smash the Gangs”.
The gangs are as but un-smashed: the quantity of people that arrived on small boats in 2024 was 25% larger than 2023, however down from 2022.
However these two (considerably overlapping) classes, small boat arrivals and asylum seekers, are solely a tiny a part of the entire immigration image, which is overwhelmingly authorized migration.
Right here, Labour hasn’t launched a lot new coverage, following modifications by the Conservatives to scale back the power of visa holders to deliver dependants, and rising wage thresholds for employees.
The story right here is considered one of regular decline – however with numbers nonetheless above 2019 ranges.
