|Published on: 3rd April 2025|Categories: News|
The updated AIDA Country Report on the United Kingdom provides a detailed overview on legislative and practice-related developments in asylum procedures, reception conditions, detention of asylum seekers and content of international protection in 2024. It also includes an annex which provides an overview of temporary protection.
A number of key developments drawn from the overview of the main changes that have taken place since the publication of the 2023 update are set out below.
Statistics
- Asylum applications and decisions: 108,138 people applied for asylum in the UK in 2024. Of this total, 8,508 applicants were from Afghanistan, 8,099 from Iran and 19% were children (both accompanied and unaccompanied). The overall recognition rate at first instance decreased to 47% from 67% in 2023. Regarding Afghan nationals specifically, the rate fell from 99% in 2023 to 47%. There was also a significant backlog of cases (124,802 people were awaiting a decision at the end of 2024).
Asylum procedure
- Resumption of asylum processing: Following the general election and change of government in July 2024, there was a resumption in the processing of asylum claims. Under the previous government’s legislation, processing had come to a quasi-complete standstill due to most cases being declared inadmissible under the Illegal Migration Act and Rwanda scheme.
- End of the Rwanda scheme: The new government abandoned the Rwanda scheme, reversed the inadmissibility policy and settled existing three related legal cases. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill which was introduced in parliament in January 2025 included a proposal to repeal the Safety of Rwanda Act.
- Access to the asylum procedure: In 2024 36,816 people arrived in the UK by small boat (29,437 in 2023). At least 82 deaths were reported in the Channel (at least 19 in 2023), including a record number of children.
Reception conditions
- Use of alternative accommodation sites: In July 2024, the new government announced that the Bibby Stockholm barge that was being used as asylum accommodation would be closed in January 2025. In March 2025, it announced that the Napier military barracks would no longer be used as asylum accommodation from September. There was also a decrease in the use of hotels (220 in November 2024 compared to 395 in March 2023).
- Reception of unaccompanied minors: Following a successful legal challenge in 2023, in January 2024, the government reported that no unaccompanied children were being accommodated in hotels.
- Safety issues in asylum reception centres: In June 2024, the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) recommended the closure of the RAF Wethersfield accommodation site due to the severe mental health crisis experienced by people who were being housed there. Shortly afterwards, an asylum hotel was the target of an arson attack during anti-immigration riots that took place in various cities in summer 2024. Overall, there were 51 recorded deaths of people housed in Home Office asylum accommodation in 2024.
Detention of asylum seekers
- Rise in number of people detained: In 2024, 20,604 people were detained under immigration powers (15,864 in 2023). They were not all people who were claiming or had previously claimed asylum.
- Unaccompanied children in short-term holding facilities in northern France: 369 unaccompanied children were held in UK-run centres in northern France between January 2022 and October 2023. An inspection in November 2024 found that some of the facilities were in poor condition, that there were safeguarding issues and that two children had been re-trafficked from them.
- Detention conditions: Reports by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in 2024 described a “worrying deterioration in safety” across all UK immigration removal centres. The Jesuit Refugee Service also published a report in which it expressed serious concerns about the centres, including inappropriate segregation, large deficiencies in healthcare provision and safeguards for vulnerable people, excessive and inappropriate use of force and a staffing culture of abuse and humiliation.
Content of international protection
- Pause on consideration of Syrian applications for settlement: Following the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria in December 2024, the Home Office paused consideration of applications for settlement from Syrian refugees who were reaching the end of their five years of refugee leave.
- Policy changes relating to exiting asylum accommodation: In August 2023, a non-public change in policy regarding the timeline for beneficiaries of protection to exit asylum accommodation led to a 223% increase in people sleeping rough after moving out. This policy change was later reversed. Between July and September 2024, there was a major decrease in the number of people being put at risk of homelessness due to having to leave asylum accommodation compared with the same period in the previous year. In November 2024, the government announced a pilot scheme to extend the “move on” period from 28 to 56 days. The scheme was launched in December 2024 and is due to end in June 2025.
Temporary protection
- Arrivals: 22,300 people arrived under Ukraine visa support schemes in 2024 (2,600 under the Ukraine Family Scheme and 19,700 under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme).
- Access to Ukraine visa support: The Ukraine Family Scheme was closed without advanced notice on 19 February 2024. Access to the UK remains possible under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
- Duration of visas: While all schemes initially offered three-year visas, since February 2024, successful applicants under the Homes for Ukraine scheme only receive 18 month visas.
The full report is available here and the annex on temporary protection is available here.
For more information about the AIDA database or to read other AIDA reports, please visit the AIDA website.
