{"id":751343,"date":"2026-08-27T11:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751343\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T11:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:28:16","slug":"new-data-shows-fall-in-visas-asylum-claims-and-small-boat-arrivals-compared-to-year-earlier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751343\/","title":{"rendered":"New data shows fall in visas, asylum claims and small boat arrivals compared to year earlier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drop in visas and small boat arrivals but more work to be done, Home Office sayspublished at 12:19 BST<\/p>\n

12:19 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Malu Cursino
Live reporter<\/p>\n

\"AImage source, Getty Images<\/p>\n

New Home Office figures show a drop in the number of visas, asylum claims and small boat arrivals in the year to June 2026.<\/p>\n

During this period, the government granted 235,000 work visas, 383,000 study visas and 58,000 family visas. <\/p>\n

A drop in work visas follows a tightening of rules, introduced by Rishi Sunak’s government and retained by the Labour government, the BBC’s home and legal correspondent writes.<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrivals into the UK on small boats were 33,000, marking a 23% drop compared to the previous year – but still in line with the same period in 2024 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Asylum claims were also down, with 86,000 people claiming refuge in the UK, however the government notes it’s at similar levels seen prior to 2021.<\/p>\n

The number of asylum seekers housed in hotels was also down to 16,00, as almost every local authority area saw a drop, our UK correspondent writes<\/a>. More than 70,000 are housed in other accommodation, a rise from a year ago. <\/p>\n

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says today’s figures show her government “is restoring control at our border and fairness to the migration system” but “there is more we must do”.<\/p>\n

While asylum claims are being processed faster, the Migration Observatory notes that “the biggest remaining challenge for the government is now the backlog in the courts” as people appeal asylum decisions.<\/p>\n

We’re ending our live coverage here, but you can read more in our news story<\/a>, and keep up to date with the BBC’s tracker on UK immigration data.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drop in visas and small boat arrivals but more work to be done, Home Office sayspublished at 12:19…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-751343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}