Image source, Getty Images

The latest Home Office figures show that more than 100,000 people claimed asylum in the UK in the year ending December 2025 – that's a fall of (4%) compared to the previous year.

The number of people arriving to the UK on a small boat was 13% higher than in 2024. But there have been falls in claims from people arriving via all other routes, BBC Verify's head of statistics Robert Cuff explains.

These figures were part of a quarterly release by the Home Office on UK migration. They show how many people arrived in the UK, as well as how many were detained or removed, over a 12-month period.

The number of asylum seekers housed in hotels has fallen – with 30,657 people staying in hotels as of December 2025, a decrease of 19% from last year. Our data journalist Rob England breaks down why this is the case.

And the overall backlog of people waiting for a decision on their asylum claim has fallen for the fourth quarter in a row to 64,426.

We're closing our live coverage, but you can continue to read about this in our main article.

Nick Johnson

For the first time in some weeks, skies over the English Channel yesterday were clear, the sea was calm and the weather was warm. Previous occasions suggest Channel crossings increase as a result of such good conditions.

Sure enough, we spotted a number of both Border Force boats and orange RNLI lifeboats leave Ramsgate, Kent heading out to sea at speed, suggesting they were retrieving people from small boats from the middle of the Channel.

Upon their return, the vessels appeared to be full to capacity with dozens of people wearing orange life jackets.

They were led off the boats to blue tents, where they appeared to be processed, before boarding coaches which were then driven away. We spotted a large number of women and young children who disembarked the vessels.

Arriving migrants are currently being processed at Ramsgate while the Border Force facility at Dover undergoes maintenance.

The Home Office data shows that in the year ending December 2025, there were 2,550 returns of people who arrived in the UK on small boats – which is a 10% increase on the previous year.

Albanian nationals made up the majority of the returns last year with 61% -- but the number of Albanian nationals arriving by small boat in the UK has declined over the last calendar year.

Turkish and Iraqi nationals are the next two most common nationalities returned, combined they make up 15% of small boat returns in the year ending December 2025.

A total of 7,612 people arriving by small boat were returned between 2018 and the end of December 2025, which is 4% of the total number of arrivals via this route over the same period.

Since 2018, 178,988 people arriving by small boat have claimed asylum, with 40% either being refused or having their applications withdrawn (70,912), 13% were still awaiting an initial decision.

The Home Office says the figures for the return of small boat arrivals may be subject to revision in the future because of changes to their data systems.

There were 235,782 grants of British citizenship in the year up to December 2025, signalling a 13% decrease compared to the previous year.

Despite the drop, the Home Office reports that this figure marks the second-highest annual level recorded within their data since 2005.

As for those permitted UK residence under the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), that number was 354,647 up to the year ending in December 2025. That is a 2% increase from the previous year.

The EUSS allows European Union citizens, who lived in the UK before January 2021, to apply for settlement in Britain.

The scheme was introduced in the wake of Brexit, and the deadline to apply for it was in June 2021.

However, family members of these applicants have been able to apply to the scheme since, in the hope of joining someone in the UK.

Robert Cuffe
BBC Verify head of statistics

We've been reporting for some time that the number of people arriving in the UK via small boats has been rising.

However, this is not the only group of people who claim asylum – those arriving in small boats accounted for less than half of all claims last year (41%).

There have been falls in claims from people arriving via all other routes.

Slightly fewer people came via other illegal routes last year, such as in lorries or shipping containers.

There were also falls in the number of people claiming asylum after having previously come into the UK with a visa.

Some people arrive in the UK on work, study or visitor visas and then claim for asylum while they're here.

That accounts for nearly as many asylum claims as small boats – this figure had been rising steadily since the end of 2021.

However, over the last 18 months that number has started to fall – mainly because of fewer students claiming asylum. This has contributed to the drop we are now seeing in asylum claims.

Home Office figures show, external an increase in the number of people who do not have a legal right to stay in the UK being returned to another country.

• Enforced returns have increased, with 9,914 enforced returns to the end of 2025, 21% higher than the previous year (8,169)
• Voluntary returns also increased in the year ending December 2025, where there were 28,004 people returning voluntarily, a rise of 5%
• Refusals of entry and port and subsequent return decreased last year with a total of 18,279, which is 21% lower than the previous year
• Returns of foreign national offenders increased by 11%, with 5,634 foreign national offenders (FNO) returned - theses were split almost evenly between EU (49%) and non-EU (51%) nationals.

In the year to December 2025, there were 426,471 sponsored study visas granted. The top three nationalities were:

• Indian, 95,231
• Chinese, 89,019
• Pakistani, 30,781

The majority of students coming to the UK are doing so to study a master's degree.

As for family visas, the top nationalities of the 66,610 visas granted were:

• Pakistani, 9,027
• Afghan, 4,367
• United States, above 3,000

According to the Home Office, there were 426,471 applicants granted sponsored study visas in the year up to December 2025 - 3% more than the previous year.

A spreadsheet from the Home Office detailing this data further shows that number of people - applicants and their dependants - entering the UK on student visas up to the year of December 2025 was 429,254.

This signals just over a 2.4% increase from the year to December 2024, where the number stood at 418,932.

(This post has been updated to clarify that the latest figures show a slight increase in sponsored visas, rather than a slight decrease)

Rob England
BBC Verify senior data journalist

The overall backlog of people waiting for a decision on their asylum claim has fallen for the fourth quarter in a row, to 64,426.

This is the lowest level the backlog has been since 2020, and comes as the number of applications fell in 2025, while processing levels remained high.

Of the 108,000 applications processed in 2025 - relating to 135,000 people - 42% were granted refugee or protection status, and 58% were refused.

Refused applicants can appeal their decision and the number of outstanding appeals has been rising in recent years, creating pressure elsewhere in the system.

The top nationalities arriving by small boat are Eritrea (19%), Afghanistan (12%), Iran (11%), Sudan (11%), and Somalia (9%).

A total of 7,602 Eritreans arrived by small boat in the year ending December 2025, more than double the previous year's figure (3,480).

According to Home Office data just released, people coming into the UK through work-related visas has decreased.

There were 261,112 people granted access to the UK - including both applicants and dependants - through work visas in the year ending December 2025.

That's almost a 30% decrease since the year ending in December 2024, where the figure stood at 368,139.

These figures shouldn't be confused with the sole number of applicants who were granted work visas in the year ending in December 2025 - another figure that the Home Office reports.

The figures we are reporting combines the number of applicants with their dependants - such as partners and children - entering the UK with them.

A total of 13,177 health and care visas were granted in the year up to December 2025 from 26,922 in the year to December 2024.

This is a fall of around 51%.

In 2025 there were 46,497 people who arrived in the UK via illegal routes, an increase of more than 7% compared to the previous year, according to the Home Office.

Small boat arrivals made up 89% of those who reached the UK via illegal routes, Home Office figures show. Other illegal arrivals included those through lorries or inadequately documented air arrivals.

The total number of small boat arrivals was 41,472, a 13% increase from the previous year.

As a reminder, not all those who arrived through illegal routes went on to claim asylum in the UK.

Rob England
BBC Verify senior data journalist

The number of asylum seekers housed in hotels has fallen, as more people are moved into longer-term accommodation, according to the latest Home Office figures.

As of December 2025, 30,657 people were staying in hotels, down 19% compared with December last year.

Hotel use peaked at around 56,000 in September 2023.

A further 72,769 people were housed in longer-term accommodation, including houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and "other accommodation", such as repurposed former military sites including Wethersfield in Essex.

Asylum seekers are entitled to housing if they cannot support themselves while their claim is being considered. Hotels are used when other types of accommodation is not available.

Ministers have pledged to end the use of asylum hotels by the end of this parliament, arguing they are significantly more expensive than longer-term housing.

There were 30,657 people being housed in asylum hotels at the end of December 2025.

This is down from 38,054 compared to the previous year.

More than 100,000 (100,625) people claimed asylum in the UK in 2025, down by 4% on the year before, according to new Home Office figures.

Slightly more than 40% arrived by small boats (41,262). Nearly the same amount had entered the UK on another visa before claiming asylum (39,095).

The Home Office has just released its latest quarterly statistics on immigration, with data up to the end of December 2025.

We're combing through the documents and will bring you key insights from the figures as soon as we have them.

The figures we are about to get from the Home Office will reflect the latest immigration data from the government.

These stats are published quarterly - every three months - and they relate to a 12-month period.

That's a lot of numbers, so to simplify: today we'll get immigration data encompassing the 12 months to December 2025. Conveniently for us, that's the calendar year of 2025.

Last time, Home Office data covered the 12 months to September 2025.

In November we had net migration figures. These showed a two-thirds drop in the year ending June 2025 compared with the previous 12 months.

The difference between the number of people arriving in the UK and those leaving was 204,000, down from 649,000, with the fall mainly driven by fewer arrivals for work and study, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

Today we won't get new ONS data, but the Home Office is releasing figures that include the number of people who have extended their stay in the UK, gained citizenship and applied for asylum.

Image source, PA Media

Ahead of today's information release, a group of migrants arrived in Ramsgate, Kent, marking the first crossing of the English Channel in just over two weeks.

On Wednesday, a large group of migrants, including children, could be seen disembarking both a lifeboat and Border Force boat, many wearing life jackets.

It was the first crossing on the dangerous route since 9 February where 322 people made the trip.

The Home Office recorded an arrival of 74 migrants on Tuesday by one small boat.

We'll get official figures, external for crossings on Wednesday, the warmest day of the year so far, later today.

Image source, PA Media