A record 111,000 asylum claims were lodged in the first year since Labour gained power, smashing the previous all-time high by 8,000, new data shows.
The Home Office said 111,084 people claimed asylum in the year to June, up 14 per cent on the previous 12 months.
It surpassed the peak of 103,000 in 2002 during the ‘asylum crisis’ under Tony Blair’s government.
One in four of the total asylum claims, 43,600, were made by small boat migrants.
The rest came here clandestinely, such as stowing away in a lorry, which accounted for 11 per cent of claims, or arrived here legally such as on a visa and then claimed to be refugees.
The top five nationalities for asylum claimants overall was Pakistani, Afghan, Iranian, Eritrean and Bangladeshi.
But Eritreans have come to dominate the Channel route – making up the largest nationality in teh first six months of this year, at 3,543, followed by Afghans with 2,318.
The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in hotels at the taxpayer’s expense jumped by eight per cent under Labour on the same point last year.
The figures show there were 32,059 asylum seekers in UK hotels by the end of June.
It was up from 29,585 at the same point a year earlier, when the Conservatives were still in power but down slightly on the 32,345 figure at the end of March, and below the 2023 peak of just over 56,000.
The figures came just days after the High Court ordered a migrant hotel in Epping, Essex, to be shut down in the wake of protests over alleged sex crimes committed by asylum seekers who had been placed there.
The overall number of asylum seekers receiving taxpayer-funded support – including those in self-catering accommodation as well as those in hotels – was 106,075 at the end of June.
The total was 100,005 just before last summer’s general election and rose to just over 112,000 at the end of last year under Labour, before coming down slightly.