Number of refugees granted asylum in the UK soars by 26% in a YEAR with nearly 50 a day now being allowed to stay 

  • Record 1.25million asylum seekers arrived in the European Union last year
  • Across EU only Germany, Sweden, Italy and France took more than the UK
  • UK resettled more refugees than any other European state - 1,864 migrants
  • See more on the migration crisis at www.dailymail.co.uk/migrantcrisis 

The number of refugees granted asylum in Britain soared by 26 per cent last year as the migration crisis engulfed Europe.

A total of 17,920 people were given sanctuary in the UK – or nearly 50 a day. It was up a quarter on the 14,065 who successfully applied for refuge the previous year, and thought to be the highest recorded since 2002.

The increase coincided with a record 1.25million asylum seekers arriving in the EU last year.

Many are fleeing humanitarian disasters in Africa and the Middle East, but others are economic migrants attracted to the UK by lavish benefits, housing and illegal work.

The number of refugees granted asylum in Britain soared by 26 per cent last year as the migration crisis engulfed Europe

The number of refugees granted asylum in Britain soared by 26 per cent last year as the migration crisis engulfed Europe

The latest rise has also been fuelled by chaos at Calais, where up to 7,000 living in a squalid makeshift camp are making desperate attempts to sneak across the English Channel (migrants pictured attempting to cross to the UK through the Channel Tunnel)

The latest rise has also been fuelled by chaos at Calais, where up to 7,000 living in a squalid makeshift camp are making desperate attempts to sneak across the English Channel (migrants pictured attempting to cross to the UK through the Channel Tunnel)

They were able to make their way across the continent unhindered once they had made it to the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone.

New figures compiled by the EU’s statistical arm Eurostat showed Britain granted protection to the fifth most asylum seekers in the EU.

Only four EU nations – Germany (148,215), Sweden (34,470), Italy (29,630) and France (26,015) – took more.

Spain, one of the most populous countries in the EU with 46 million people, gave asylum to just 1,030 applicants last year and Poland – with a population of 38 million – took just 695.

Ireland took 710 while Portugal’s figure was 195. Romania, which has a population of 20 million, granted refuge to just 525 people.

In addition the UK also resettled more refugees than any other country in Europe. It accepted 1,864 migrants – 1 in 5 of the 8,155 migrants given homes in the EU.

The Government has pledged to resettle 20,000 vulnerable Syrian refugees in Britain by 2020, at a cost more than half a billion pounds.

Campaigners and MPs warned the figures were the tip of the iceberg because more than half of the asylum seekers making it to the EU had yet been given a decision.

Of those arriving in the UK, 2,085 came from conflict-torn Syria – none of them through Government schemes to rescue displaced people from the war. Some 2,470 were from Sudan and 2,385 fleeing persecution in Iran.

New figures compiled by the EU’s statistical arm Eurostat showed Britain granted protection to the fifth most asylum seekers in the EU. Only four EU nations – Germany (148,215), Sweden (34,470), Italy (29,630) and France (26,015) – took more

New figures compiled by the EU’s statistical arm Eurostat showed Britain granted protection to the fifth most asylum seekers in the EU. Only four EU nations – Germany (148,215), Sweden (34,470), Italy (29,630) and France (26,015) – took more

Last year, there were 38,080 applications for asylum, including spouses, children or other family members – almost 50 per cent higher than the 25,870 people who sought refuge in 2014.

Only 47 per cent were granted asylum or alternative protection, meaning nearly six out of ten failed in their claim, including because they were considered economic migrants who came to the UK to work.

However, the number of asylum seekers remained a fraction of the record 84,000 who arrived in the UK in 2002 under Tony Blair.

The latest rise has also been fuelled by chaos at Calais, where up to 7,000 living in a squalid makeshift camp are making desperate attempts to sneak across the English Channel.

It is a blow to David Cameron who vowed to cut net migration to the tens of thousands. It is now 323,000.

The figures will be a fresh concern to the Prime Minister who is facing mounting demands from Tory Eurosceptics to wrest control of Britain’s borders from the EU.

Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of think-tank MigrationWatch, said: ‘These figures are only the start. The number are certain to continue to build, probably quite quickly, unless we can find a way to stabilise the war in Syria.’

A total of 17,920 people were given sanctuary in the UK – or nearly 50 a day. It was up a quarter on the 14,065 who successfully applied for refuge the previous year

A total of 17,920 people were given sanctuary in the UK – or nearly 50 a day. It was up a quarter on the 14,065 who successfully applied for refuge the previous year

Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee, said: ‘This represents a large increase in the number of people granted asylum and is nearly 20 per cent of the Government’s own net migration target.

‘The question has to be asked why so many more people are coming here and why our EU partners are not doing more to ensure those who come via the EU claim asylum in the first country they arrive in.’

Overall, EU member states granted protection to more than 333,350 asylum seekers last year, an increase of 72 per cent on the 185,000 the year before.

But the figures highlight how total asylum numbers are already shared unequally across member states.

Eurostat said that since 2008, nearly 1.1million asylum seekers have been granted protection in the EU.

Allan Hogarth, of Amnesty UK, said: ‘These stats have to be placed in the grim context in which they belong.

‘The world is in the grips of the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War and countries across Europe, including the UK, haven’t done anywhere near enough in response to that.’