UK sees 28% increase in number of asylum claims

The number of people claiming asylum in the United Kingdom increased by 28 percent last year, taking the total from 84,000 in 2023 to 108,000 in 2024.

The increase was the fastest among European nations and will worry the UK's ruling Labour Party, which knows unregulated immigration is a major election issue and has fed the rise of far-right, anti-immigration parties, including Reform UK.

The record high was calculated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, which said it broke the previous record of 103,000 set in 2002.

Many of the people who claimed asylum in the UK arrived illegally on small boats as part of an influx of migrants that the government and the preceding Conservative Party government have tried to stop.

Lee Anderson, a Reform UK lawmaker, told The Telegraph newspaper the figures show both governments have not dealt with the situation.

"Decades of failed Tory (Conservative) and Labour governments are to blame," he said, claiming the parties "continue to posture on immigration while refusing to end the endless incentives that draw more arrivals".

Anderson said asylum seekers have targeted the UK because of its generous welfare system, and the ease with which they can find work.

But the OECD said asylum claims have been increasing in all rich countries and stood at more than 3 million across its 38 member nations last year. And the Euronews website noted that the OECD data also shows that total migration into rich countries, which includes both legal and illegal migration, fell by 4 percent last year.

The OECD said the top three draws for asylum seekers in 2024 included the United States in first place with 1.7 million claims, which was up from 1.2 million in 2023. Germany was second, with 230,000 claims. And Canada saw the third-largest total, with 174,000 claims in 2024. Spain and Italy also had more asylum applications than the UK, with Spain recording 164,000 and Italy registering 151,000.

Keir Starmer, the UK's prime minister, has pledged to get to grips with "illegal immigration" and acknowledged "it has been too easy for people to enter the country, work in the shadow economy and remain illegally".

A government spokesman added that the Labour Party, which came to power in July 2024, has been working to improve the system it inherited after 14 years of Conservative Party rule.

"The government is furious about the number of illegal migrants in this country," he said. "We are determined to fix every aspect of the broken system we inherited. That is why we are speeding up with removing the incentives that draw illegal migrants to Britain, and making it easier to deport illegal migrants."