Information on migrants shows some key nations stand out as popular locations from where many travel to Britain.
A man carries a child with migrants leaving northern France (Image: Getty )
Britain’s migration crisis is fast-becoming a potential election-deciding issue when Labour’s term in office ends in 2029, as a record 111,084 people claiming asylum in the UK in the latest year to June 2025. This figure is the highest noted since stats were first logged in 2002 and illegal Channel migrants make up just under half of all claimants.
Some 52,189 migrants have arrived in the UK using the Channel route since the 2024 general election, with some 659 migrants arriving on Monday, according to figures from the Home Office. The cumulative number of arrivals in 2025 now stands at a provisional total of 28,947. This is 50% higher than at the same point last year, when the total stood at 19,294, and 47% higher than at this stage in 2023, when the total was 19,741.
On Monday there were nine boats that successfully made the crossing, which suggests an average of around 73 people per boat.
Migrants leaving the French coast heading for Britain (Image: Getty )
According to Sky News, between 2002 and 2025, the top five nationalities claiming asylum were from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Eritrea. Despite Pakistan being a nuclear-armed democracy, asylum applications have continued to increase from the nation since 2002.
The channel reports Pakistan tops the list of most failed asylum claims, 6,313, with Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Iran following.
Dr Peter Walsh, a senior researcher at the Migration Observatory, a research institute at the University of Oxford, told Sky News the difficulty returning failed asylum seekers could stem from the diplomatic agreements in place between the UK and their country of origin.
He said: “This is a challenge that’s been getting more difficult in recent years, and it’s largely due to [rejected asylum seekers] countries of origin. If you have an Afghan asylum claimant who’s been refused, we don’t currently have relationships with the Taliban or any kind of returns agreements.”
A boat dangerously overloaded with migrants heading for the UK (Image: Getty )
Reform UK would seek to deport up to 600,000 asylum seekers in its first parliament if elected to government.
Nigel Farage warned of a “genuine threat to public order” without action to tackle illegal migration as he and Zia Yusuf launched the party’s plans at an event at London Oxford Airport.
Reform UK describes its “operation restoring justice” as a five-year emergency programme to detain and deport illegal migrants and deter future arrivals that they would enact if elected to government.
The party pledged to scale up detention capacity for asylum seekers to 24,000 and secure deals with countries such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran to return migrants to their countries.
The Conservatives accused Reform UK of “re-heating and recycling” Tory plans on immigration.
A spokesperson said: “Earlier this year we introduced and tabled votes on our Deportation Bill in Parliament, detailing how we would disapply the Human Rights Act from all immigration matters, and deport every illegal immigrant on arrival.
“Months later, Reform have not done the important work necessary to get a grip on the immigration crisis and instead have produced a copy and paste of our proposals.
“Only Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives are doing the real work needed to end this scourge – with further, detailed plans to be announced shortly.”
