Albanians become largest nationality claiming UK asylum for first time

Albanians have become the largest nationality claiming asylum in the UK for the first time after a surge in numbers crossing the Channel in small boats, Home Office figures show.

Nearly 16,000 claimed asylum last year, accounting for a fifth of all applicants in the past year, and up from just 685 a decade ago.

It was fuelled by the record surge in migrants crossing the Channel which hit nearly 46,000, of which more than a quarter were Albanians.

The disclosure comes as it was revealed the asylum backlog has risen to 160,000, its highest on record.

Home Office data released on Thursday showed the number of outstanding claims by individual asylum seekers stood at 160,919, up 60 per cent in a year from 100,564 at the end of December 2021.

This represents 132,182 cases including families, beating the previous highest record of 125,100 in 1999 during the Tony Blair-era asylum crisis.

It means taxpayers face a record £2.1 billion bill for asylum seekers’ accommodation, subsistence and other associated costs. Some £7 million a day is being spent on housing some 40,000 in hotels.

The figures will increase pressure on Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman to stop the small boat crossings which have seen nearly 90,000 migrants reach the UK since 2018 and to cut the asylum backlog.

It follows Wednesday’s announcement of plans to give 12,000 asylum seekers the right to live in the UK without face to face interviews to check their claims in an effort to slash the backlog.

The move - branded an “amnesty in all but name” by critics - is designed to help meet Rishi Sunak’s pledge to clear a backlog of more than 90,000 outstanding “older” asylum claims by the end of this year.

But a former Whitehall source said: “This risks being an incentive to criminal gangs, was rejected by Boris Johnson and is a smoke screen for accepting illegal migrants into the UK.”

The asylum backlog of 160,919 awaiting an initial decision is more than three times the number at the end of 2019, when it was just 40,032 cases accounting for 51,228 individual asylum seekers.

The number of people now waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 109,641 at the end of 2022, up 77 per cent year-on-year from 61,864, Home Office figures show.

The backlog has been fuelled by the highest number of applications (89,398) since 2002 and a low number of decisions (34,942, compared to a 2015-2020 average of 39,227).

Albanians count for one in five asylum seekers

Albanians have become the largest asylum-seeking group for the first time with 15,925 applications with a 27 per cent success rate in being granted refuge in the UK. One in five asylum seekers were Albanian. A decade ago they accounted for just 685 asylum seekers.

They were followed by Afghans at 10,872 (96 per cent success rate), Iranian: 9,183 (77 per success rate, Iraqi 6,295 (50 per cent success rate) and Syrian: 4,534 (96 per cent success rate).

The data shows that 45,755 migrants reached the UK via small boats across the Channel in the year to December, of which almost half were either Albanians (12,301 or 28 per cent) or Afghans (8,633 or 20 per cent).

This represents a 1,409 per cent increase in Albanians arriving in the past year by boat compared to just 815 in 2021 and a 501 per cent increase in Afghan arrivals up from 1,437 in 2021 and just three in 2018.

Nine in 10 small boat arrivals claimed asylum but only a tiny minority had received an initial decision. Some 97 per cent of small boat asylum applications - equivalent to 34,793 - in 2022 were still awaiting a decision. Since 2018, 83 per cent of asylum cases - equivalent to 56,883 cases - were awaiting a decision.

The Home Office data also revealed that it granted 1,426,133 visas for people coming to the UK to work, study or live in the year to September, another record high and up from 886,963 in the year before.

These were made up of 423,013 work visas (up from 239,193), 626,551 for students (up from 435,110) and 323,407 others (up from 161,557).

On work visas, Indians represented the largest proportion (67,380), followed by Filipinos (20,926) and Nigerians(15,164).

Overall, just 9.7 per cent of work visas went to EU citizens, compared with 30.8 per cent to South Asians, 20.8 per cent to Africans, 7.5 per cent to Americans (North and South) and 19,5 per cent to other Asians.

A record 135,788 dependents accompanied 490,763 students in the year ending September 2022 - a ratio of 3.6 students for every dependent and double the ratio of last year.

Libyans (0.5), Nigerians (1), Iraqis (1.2) and Sri Lankans (1.1) have the highest proportions - although Nigerian students brought 60,923 dependents in the year ending December.

Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK said: “These figures show absolutely no sign that the government are responding to public opinion and getting a grip of immigration.

“At just over a quarter of a million, the number of work visas issued in 2022 is almost double that of 2019. Student arrivals, meanwhile, were nearly half a million in addition to over 600,000 international students already enrolled here. 

“This government will pay a heavy price for failing yet again to control and reduce immigration; despite their repeated promises.”

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “It’s alarming that the asylum backlog has now hit the highest recorded level with over 160,000 men, women and children left in limbo awaiting a decision. We know from our work how damaging long waits are on those who find themselves stuck in poor quality hotels, costing £5million a day,  and are unable to work or move on with their lives.

“The fact that nearly all those who crossed the Channel in 2022, risking their lives in search of protection in the UK, have still not received a decision on their case is a damning indictment of the state of the asylum system which is increasingly chaotic and disorderly.”