Asylum seekers now make up nearly half of net migration to the UK and the number housed in hotels has increased despite Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to end their use.
Official figures revealed that net migration — the difference between those arriving and leaving — fell to 204,000 in the year to June, down by more than two thirds in a year to reach the lowest annual level since 2021.
This was largely driven by a sharp decline in the number non-EU migrants coming to work and study, and the exit of large numbers of migrants who had arrived as part of the so-called Boris-wave since 2021.
However, it was also driven by the net emigration of 109,000 British nationals, largely young workers, with thirds of those leaving aged between 16-34.
There was a decline in every main immigration category apart from asylum seekers, the Office for National Statistics data showed.
The number of asylum seekers hit a record high in the last year and, owing to the falling numbers in other categories, they accounted for 44 per cent of total net migration.
The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory said: “The only major migration category where net migration did not decrease was asylum.
“Long-term immigration of asylum seekers was 96,000 in the year ending June 2025, making up 11 per cent of all immigration — double the 5 per cent share in 2019.
“Relatively few asylum migrants emigrate, so net migration of people seeking asylum was 90,000 in the same period, equivalent 44 per cent of total net migration. This share was also around double the pre-Brexit figure of 22 per cent in 2019.”
The proportion of asylum seekers is likely to be higher still. More recent data published by the Home Office showed that a record 110,051 people had claimed asylum in the UK in the year to September.
This drove an increase in the number of asylum seekers in hotels, to 36,273 at the end of September. This is nearly a quarter higher than when Labour entered power in July last year, although it is lower than the peak of 56,018 in September 2023.
The prime minister has repeatedly promised to end the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers.
There were 108,085 asylum seekers in taxpayer-funded accommodation at the end of September, which includes dispersal accommodation such as bedsits and multi-occupancy homes. A further 3,566 received other financial help.
More than half of asylum seekers arrived in the UK illegally, including 45,000 on small boats and 12,000 in the back of lorries or without adequate documents. More than 41,000 claimed asylum after arriving in the UK on a visa or as a visitor. A third of these, 14,243, were foreign students.
The number of small boat migrants deported from the UK has fallen since Labour entered power: a total of 2,852, down from 2,932 in the equivalent period before Starmer became prime minister.
A migrant who re-entered Britain after being deported to France under the “one in, one out” deal was removed on a flight on Thursday. The unnamed man is among the 153 migrants who have been removed under the returns deal with France since the scheme was first enacted in September. He was initially removed to France on October 16 but returned on a small boat on November 8.
However, the Home Office has significantly improved decision-making and the asylum backlog has fallen to 62,000, down more than a third since the year before. The number of migrants appealing against decisions to reject asylum claims remains at record levels, of more than 50,000.
A Home Office source said: “We’re under no illusion of the scale of the challenge, which is why the home secretary announced the most sweeping reforms to illegal migration in modern times last week.”
The Conservatives accused Labour of losing control of the border.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: “Today’s figures blow apart every claim Labour have made about getting control. More asylum grants, more claims, more illegal immigrants in hotels and almost no removals of small boat migrants. This is an asylum system and illegal small boat immigration in freefall under a Labour government that is too weak to get a grip.”
Ben Brindle, a researcher at the Migration Observatory, said that the latest figures had begun to challenge the assumption among economists that immigration benefited the economy overall.
He said: “The economic impacts of changes in migration depend on who is migrating, not just how many. Much of the decline in net migration is likely to have small impacts because it results from groups like care workers and family members of students, who fall in the middle of the spectrum: not the groups with the most positive or the most negative economic impacts.
“However, it does seem that the composition of migration has become less favourable from an economic perspective, with fewer people getting skilled worker visas and a higher share of refugees, who often need a lot of support.”
Separate research published by the Home Office revealed that less than half of refugees granted asylum in the UK had a job eight years later. The wider UK employment rate over the same period was 73 per cent.
Why are so many people leaving Britain?
The sharp fall in net migration over the last year, to 204,000, was driven by the single largest outflow of people in a century as a proportion of the UK population (Matt Dathan writes).
A total of 693,000 people moved overseas in the year to June, or 1 per cent of Britain’s population. This was the highest proportion of the population to leave the UK since 1923, when 463,000 people left, which was 1.04 per cent of the UK population.
The simplest way to explain the exodus is that large numbers of migrants who arrived under Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit immigration system are starting to leave.
The surge after the pandemic was driven entirely by migrants from outside the EU and they are the biggest group now leaving the UK: 286,000 in the year to June, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Half of all non-EU nationals leaving the UK in the last year were international students who had finished their courses. A further 64,000 were workers, and the remainder were those who came on humanitarian visas, including 20,000 Ukrainians.
The next largest group of people emigrating from the UK were British nationals, a total of 252,000.
There is little data available on why people leave the UK.
However, the ONS has for the first time published a breakdown of the age groups of those emigrating and it shows that the vast majority — 68 per cent — were aged between 16 and 34. The ONS said most of these were likely to be young British workers leaving the UK.
The only age group of Britons with larger numbers returning to the UK than leaving were aged over 55, suggesting that people are returning to Britain for their retirement.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that British doctors and teachers are moving to countries such as Australia and New Zealand, coaxed by better pay and conditions. However, these numbers are in the low thousands.
There are also studies showing thousands of wealthy people leaving Britain following Labour’s decision to scrap the 225-year-old non-dom tax system, which enabled some people living in Britain not to pay UK tax on their overseas earnings in return for an annual fee. Again, however, the numbers are small.
The ONS said that the numbers of British nationals emigrating had remained relatively stable compared with the last decade.
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However, the numbers are much higher than previously thought because of a recent change in the way the ONS calculates British emigrants. Until this year it was relying on unreliable international passenger surveys rather than tax and benefit data.
It meant that the number leaving the UK since 2021 was 344,000 higher than the ONS had previously estimated.
Finally, EU nationals leaving the UK — 155,000 — accounted for 22 per cent of those emigrating. This continued the trend of EU migrants leaving the UK after Brexit, although the rate has slowed.
The numbers vary by nationality. Romanians were by far the largest group 37,000 left the UK in the year to June 2025 — followed by 25,000 Poles and 12,000 Italians.
Romanians were also the largest EU group immigrating to the UK, with 14,000 in the year to June.