The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in British hotels has fallen to its lowest level for 18 months as a Labour minister told GB News they are “restoring order and control.”
There were 30,657 people staying in such accommodation while they were awaiting a decision on their asylum claims at the end of December.
However, the total number of small boat arrivals was 41,472, a 13 per cent increase from the previous year.
There were 64,426 people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of December 2025, the lowest number in more than five years.
This is down 20 per cent from 80,841 at the end of September 2025 and a drop of nearly a half (48 per cent) from 124,802 a year earlier at the end of December 2024.
Reacting to today’s figures, Minister for Border Security and Asylum Alex Norris, told GB News: “If you have no right to be in this country, you must leave.
“This country is fair, but we are firm and we enforce our rules.
“These figures show removals and deportations of illegal migrants are now at record levels.
“Nearly 60,000 people with no right to be here have been removed under this government, including the deportation of 8,700 foreign criminals.
Alex Norris spoke to GB News about the figures
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GB NEWS“This includes returning people to countries that we have rarely been able to before, with a significant rise in returns to Afghanistan, Eritrea and Sudan.
“Now, we will go further. We will continue to impose visa sanctions on countries that do not accept their citizens back, and we will introduce domestic law to ensure human rights laws cannot block a legitimate removal.
“This Government is restoring order and control at our border.”
A total of 100,625 people applied for asylum in the UK in 2025, Home Office figures show.
PICTURED: Border Force bringing a group of migrants into Dover | PAThis is down four per cent from 104,764 in 2024, which was the highest for a calendar year since current records began in 2001.
More to follow…
