Today the Home Office has issued its quarterly immigration statistics for the year ending March 2025. Highlights include:

• Use of asylum hotels is falling: Today’s figures show that 32,345 people seeking asylum were placed in hotel accommodation in the year ending March 2025. This is 15% lower than at the end of 2024 and 42% lower than when numbers peaked at the end of September 2023 and 56,042 people were accommodated in hotels.
• The number of outstanding asylum applications is falling: The asylum backlog now stands at 78,745 cases, relating to 190,536 people. This is a reduction by 13% and the lowest number of cases since September 2021.

Responding to these figures, Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said:

Today's figures reflect that we are living in an ever-unstable world, where many men, women and children are left with no choice but to flee their homes in search for safety. The number of Channel crossings has increased by 22%.

The only way to cut Channel crossings is to undermine the business model of the smugglers, which necessarily includes creating more safe and legal routes for people to apply for asylum in Britain.

We are therefore concerned that the government intends to make it more difficult for families torn apart by war and persecution to reunite safely and legally.

Making family reunion more difficult will mean vulnerable men, women and children risk perilous journeys across the Channel as they desperately seek to reunite with their loved ones.

We are encouraged to see that the Government is getting the broken asylum system working again, making progress in clearing the backlog – the figures show the number of outstanding cases has fallen by 13%, meaning it’s the smallest it’s been since 2021. Getting asylum application decisions right first time remains the fastest way to cut costs in the system.

It is vital the Government continues to prioritise cutting the backlog of asylum applications, the key reason why so many people remain stuck in asylum hotels. Though we are encouraged fewer people are being accommodated there, currently there are still over 30,000 people stuck in limbo in hotels.

The two most visible symbols of the asylum system are boats and hotels. To restore public confidence, the government must undermine the business model of the people smugglers by expanding safe and legal routes for people to apply for asylum in Britain, and deal with the backlog in asylum applications.

Once asylum applications have been decided, refugees can be moved out of hotels and supported to integrate and contribute to our local communities, while those who have no right to stay here can be returned with dignity.