According to recent Home Office data, the number of foreign workers granted UK visas fell precipitously last year, yet the number of asylum requests skyrocketed.

In 2024, there were 108,138 asylum applications in Britain, the most for any 12-month period since statistics started to be kept in 2001. 

In the meantime, as the government attempted to lower record levels of legal immigration, the number of work visas granted fell, especially for those arriving for positions in the NHS and social care.

In 2024, almost 27,000 visas for health and care workers were issued. According to government figures released on Thursday, this was 81% lower than the peak attained in 2023. Additionally, the data showed that 393,000 sponsored study visas were issued to foreign students in 2024, a decrease of 14% from 2023 but a 46% increase over 2019.

Asylum seeker application were up 18% from 91,811 in 2023. The previous record was 103,081 in the 12 months to December 2002.

Migrants who arrived in the UK after making the perilous journey across the English Channel in small boats accounted for 32% of the total number of people claiming asylum last year.

Pakistani was the most common nationality among asylum applicants, accounting for 10,542 people almost 10% of the total. This is up from 5,904 in 2023.

Afghan was the second most common nationality with 8,508 people, down from 9,710 the previous year. Along with Pakistan, the largest increase in asylum claims last year came from Vietnamese nationals, which stood at 5,259 (4.9% of the total), up from 2,469 (2.7%).

There were 124,802 people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of December 2024. This was down 6% from 133,409 at the end of September 2024.

Some 38,079 asylum seekers were being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of December, up 2,428 from 35,651 at the end of September.

It is the second quarterly rise in a row, although the figure is still below the recent peak of 56,042 at the end of September 2023.

Asylum seekers and their families are housed in temporary accommodation if they are waiting for the outcome of a claim or an appeal and have been assessed as not being able to support themselves independently.

If there is not enough space in accommodation provided by councils or other organisations they are placed in hotels.

Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Dame Angela Eagle said: “Over the last six years, legal migration soared, a criminal smuggler industry was allowed to establish itself in the Channel, and the asylum system was broken.

“We’re restoring order to the system and substantially increasing enforcement.

“Since July, returns are up to their highest level in half a decade, with 19,000 people with no right to be here removed.

“Enforced returns up 24% and illegal working arrests and visits increased by 38%. “Under the previous government, in the last few months before the election, asylum decision making collapsed by more than 70% pushing the backlog right up.

“We have spent the summer and autumn reversing that damage increasing asylum decision making by 52% in the last three months of 2024, putting us on track to close more asylum hotels next month.

“We are also ensuring that legal migration continues to come down after the previous government quadrupled net migration in the space of four years.

“And we have already taken action to reverse some of the loosening of visa requirements introduced by the last government where we have found evidence of abuse.”