Video Icon
POLITICS

Small boats crisis: Just 13% of migrant asylum claims dealt with in five years

The Home Office has decided only 13 per cent of asylum claims lodged by migrants who arrived in small boats since the beginning of 2018, government figures have revealed.

Between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2022, there were 83,236 migrants who crossed the Channel in small boats, of whom 76,134 applied for asylum. Yet only 10,188 applications have been processed, which is about 2,000 asylum decisions a year or 170 a month.

The Home Office has completed a total of 89,385 asylum applications since 2018, 17,877 a year, according to figures published by the department.

It means that between 2018 and 2022, only about 11 per cent of asylum decisions have related to small boats.

The figures expose the extent to which the Home