Asylum seekers – including small boat migrants – now make up 44 per cent of net migration to Britain, new figures show.

Net migration – the difference between those arriving to live long-term in Britain minus those emigrating – plummeted to 204,000 in the year to June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said today.

But the number of asylum seekers coming to Britain has surged to a record high.

As other types of migrant – such as foreign workers – leave the UK in greater numbers, asylum seekers are accounting for a greater share of the net total.

A spokesman for Oxford University‘s Migration Observatory, recognised as one of the most authoritative commentators on immigration issues, said: ‘The only major migration category where net migration did not decrease was asylum.

‘Long-term immigration of asylum seekers was 96,000 in the year ending June 2025, making up 11 per cent of all immigration—double the 5 per cent share in 2019.

‘Relatively few asylum migrants emigrate, so net migration of people seeking asylum was 90,000 in the same period, equivalent 44 per cent of total net migration.

‘This share was also around double the pre-Brexit figure of 22 per cent in 2019.’

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Migrants sprint into the sea at Gravelines beach in northern France in August this year to board a people smugglers’ dinghy bound for Britain

Dr Ben Brindle, researcher at the Migration Observatory, questioned the economic impact of the changing composition of migration.

‘It does seem that the composition of migration has become less favourable from an economic perspective, with fewer people getting skilled worker visas and a higher share of refugees, who often need a lot of support,’ he said.

‘The economic impacts of changes in migration depend on who is migrating, not just how many.’

The figures are likely to be even more stark than depicted in the Migration Observatory’s analysis.

It was based on today’s ONS data and older Home Office figures up to June.

But the Home Office has today published separate figures covering a more up to date period showing an even higher level of asylum claims.

In the year to September there were 110,051 asylum claims lodged in Britain, a record high, and far above the 96,000 used to calculate the 44 per cent figure.

Because net migration has seen such a rapid fall – down two thirds from 649,000 a year earlier – it is likely to have continued falling in the most recent three months.

This would make the proportion of net migration made up by asylum seekers even more pronounced.

The picture is likely to become clearer when the ONS publishes its next figures on net migration in six months’ time.