63% increase in asylum applications in 2021, 60% in asylum backlog
The Home Office has today released comprehensive immigration statistics for the year 2021. You can access the various documents from here.
Image credit: UK GovernmentThe statistics show there was a significant increase in asylum clams in 2021 (up 63% on 2020) and an equally large increase in the backlog of claims awaiting an initial decision, which reached a record high of over 100,000 people at the end of the year.
Asylum applications in the year 2021 were at their highest level since 2003.
The Home Office said: "There were 48,540 asylum applications (relating to 56,495 people) in the UK in 2021. This is 63% more than the previous year and the highest number for almost two decades. As shown in Figure 2, it is higher than at the peak of the European Migration crisis (36,546 in year ending June 2016), and is the highest number of asylum applications in the UK since the year ending December 2003 (49,407). It is, however, around half the level of the previous peak in 2002 (84,132 applications), which was partly driven by military action, conflict or political unrest in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and Somalia."
Iran was the top nationality claiming asylum in the UK in 2021.
On the backlog of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision, the Home Office stated: "At the end of 2021, there were 81,978 cases (relating to 100,564 people) awaiting an initial decision, 60% higher than the previous year. The number of cases awaiting an initial decision has shown an overall increase in the last ten years, and more rapidly since 2018, when there were 27,256 cases awaiting an initial decision at the end of that year. Although the number of initial decisions made in 2021 rose from the previous year (up 2%, to 14,572), it has not matched the rise in asylum applications (up 63%, to 48,540 applications). This means more cases entered the asylum system than left it, resulting in an increase in cases awaiting an initial decision."
An uncommonly large percentage of the initial decisions made last year were successful.
The Home Office noted: "In 2021, there were 14,572 initial decisions made on asylum applications, 2% higher than in 2020. Although the number of decisions has increased in the last year, they remain below levels seen before the pandemic (there were 20,766 decisions in 2019). Almost three quarters (72%) of the initial decisions in 2021 were grants (of asylum, humanitarian protection or alternative forms of leave), which is substantially higher than the previous years."
As we reported on EIN last September, the Home Office has said it is recruiting hundreds more caseworkers as the average time for an initial decision on an asylum application has now reached over a year.
The Home Office has also today released statistics on asylum seekers crossing the Channel by small boat in 2021. You can read it here.
According to the statistics, there were 28,526 people detected arriving on small boats in 2021 compared with 8,466 in 2020, 1,843 in 2019 and just 299 in 2018.
The Home Office added: "There were 1,034 small boats detected arriving in the UK in 2021 (each boat contains multiple people). This compares with 641 in 2020, 164 in 2019 and 43 in 2018. The yearly increase in number of persons arriving is related to both more boats making the crossing and an increase in the average number of people on each boat. In 2021, there were an average of 28 people per small boat, which was much higher than 2020 (13 people per small boat), 2019 (11 people) and 2018 (7 people)."