Also exclusive: How many ‘asylum seekers’ have simply disappeared since the boat migrant crisis started
Our weeks-long deep-dive into Home Office data has been terrifying – here we reveal some examples
Today at Oxford Airport, Nigel Farage will unveil Reform UK’s much-awaited plans for a complete overhaul of the UK’s way of dealing with immigration. After weeks of research with our colleagues at Brexit Facts4EU into the Home Office’s standard published data – and their unofficial working data – we reveal some shocking facts in close association with GB News, who are covering this story today.
SUMMARY
- The last complete set of results show the UK’s asylum system costing the taxpayer £5.4 billion per year
- This annual cost has risen astonishingly rapidly – by almost six times in just five years
- We also reveal a profoundly worrying fact about boat migrants no-one has revealed before, PLUS
- Since the boat migrant crisis, an incredible 71,761 migrants have disappeared from the Home Office system
1. The cost of asylum
What follows does not appear in any of the Home Office’s official set of data it releases each quarter. We found it in a ‘transparency’ spreadsheet they produced but it is not part of the normally, publicly available suite of data contained in a very large number of different spreadsheets. These already indicate why the Government’s own Independent Chief Inspector described the Home Office’s control of its information as being not fit for purpose.
SUMMARY
The annual costs of asylum, financial years 2018/19 – 2023/24
The small boats crisis started in 2018. The information for 2024/25 is incomplete, therefore we have not included this.
The Home Office says:
“The costs of managing an asylum operations claim include a) costs associated with deciding a case (screening clients, interviews and issuing a decision), b) managing any related appeal, c) the cost of all asylum operations support (S4, S95 & S98) d) detention costs where detention has been used and e) enforcement costs (escorting and assisted voluntary returns). Also included are the costs of department staff and buildings and the proportionate costs of the Home Office building and managerial costs.”
2. Where have all the migrants gone?
The figures for asylum seekers are published quarterly by the Home Office. Unsurprisingly the focus in the media has usually been on the overall numbers.
For example we know that in the first 12 months of Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure of 10 Downing Street, a total of 111,084 asylum claims were made. This is an increase of 14.4% on the previous 12 months.
What has not been revealed is the number of these asylum claimants who have disappeared or been removed from the Home Office’s systems as they failed to show up for their appointment to review their claim.
SUMMARY
Today we can reveal that an astonishing 71,761 migrants are what the Home Office call ‘On Hold’, since 2018.
The Home Office says:
Applications ‘On Hold’ consist of 2 categories:
“i) Individuals who have been identified and recorded as Absconders. Further information on this process is available in Chapter 19a of the Enforcement Instructions and Guidance.
“ii) Individuals whose claims have been treated as implicitly withdrawn due to their failure to complete an asylum operations questionnaire or attend a substantive asylum interview. Further information on this process is available in the Asylum Policy Instruction on Withdrawing Asylum operation Claims
“Where an acceptable reason is received for missing an appointment, the case would not be treated as implicitly withdrawn under the Policy on Withdrawing Asylum Claims and would therefore not be categorised as ‘On Hold.”
Please take a minute out to read this, and then continue reading the article below:
Join us here – UK sovereignty needs you! – Introductory 50% off standard Membership!
(ANNUAL Memberships, lasting 12 months from the date you join. Cancel any time – membership continues until expiry and you won’t be charged again.)
– very much welcomed – in addition to or instead of the above
(Stand for Our Sovereignty is a campaigning division of CIBUK)
The three Membership levels offer increasing levels of privileges. PLEASE NOTE: The standard Sovereign Membership is currently £12/yr (approx 3p per day) and is an introductory price at 50% off. It will soon rise to the full £24/yr so hurry! We need as many Members as possible to give us the funds to put up a professional fight, so please tell your friends and family!
Big-hitter who believes in sovereignty and wants to see their money make a real difference?
If you are a potential large donor, then please contact our Chairman here.
All monies are handled by CIBUK, the oldest-established organisation for independence in the UK, founded in 1969. We trust this will give everyone confidence that their money will be managed properly and spent effectively on Stand for Our Sovereignty’s work.
Don’t leave this to someone else. You are that ‘someone else’.
3. The migrants who arrived on small boats but never applied for asylum – Why not?
In the same period we used above, we researched the number of illegal migrants entering the country illegally on small boats. Note: This is specific to boat migrants only, whereas the above charts relate to all asylum applications. This makes the figures below all the more shocking.
If these people made no claim for asylum or protection whatsoever, why not? This raises very troubling questions about the national security implications.
SUMMARY
Below are the figures for illegal boat migrants by quarter since 2018
Nearly 9,000 illegal boat migrants never made any protection or asylum claim
Why not? Where did they go?
OBSERVATIONS
This has been a co-production with the think-thank Brexit Facts4EU.Org and we are grateful for the support of GB News in covering this. Please support Facts4EU’s work to allow them to keep going. All donations are greatly appreciated and badly needed. Will you help them or us?