Official Statistics

Additional statistics relating to Illegal Migration (April 2024)

Updated 26 April 2024

This ad hoc statistical release provides an update with the latest available Home Office data at the end of March 2024, and with some additional information for the first part of April.

The publication of this information supports the Prime Minister’s statement made on 22 April 2024. It is provisional data derived from internal operational MI (Management Information) unless otherwise indicated, and therefore may not correspond exactly to subsequent official statistics releases.

A selection of Statistics from Home Office operational systems relating to the Illegal Migration Act were first published on 24 April 2023 to support parliamentary debates on the Act and have been subsequently updated on several occasions.

Statistics on the number of migrants detected crossing the English Channel in small boats are updated daily by the Home Office and published on GOV.UK.

Comprehensive data on small boat arrivals is published by the Home Office in the statistical report on small boats and irregular migration as part of the regular quarterly Home Office Immigration system statistics. The Home Office publishes a wide range of statistics relating to the operation of the asylum system in the Immigration system statistics. The next quarterly publication will be on 23 May.

Provisional operational data shows that between 1 January and 21 April 2024 there were:

• 6,265 small boat arrivals compared to 5,049 in the same period last year, an increase of 24%
• together, Vietnamese (1,266) and Afghan (1,216) arrivals comprised 40% of the total arrivals in this period and are the top 2 nationalities arriving so far in 2024
• Vietnamese nationals make up 20% of all arrivals so far this year compared to less than 3% (125) in the same period last year; this represents a ten-fold year-on-year increase in Vietnamese arrivals
• Afghan nationals make up 19% of all arrivals so far this year, which is broadly similar to the proportion of arrivals in the same period last year (22% - 1,098)
• there were 3,783 arrivals of all other nationalities compared to 3,826 in the same period last year, which is a decrease of 1%
• in the 12 months to 21 April 2024 there were 30,653 small boat arrivals compared to 45,755 in the calendar year 2022, a decrease of 33%
• in the 12 months to 21 April 2024 there were 2,515 Vietnamese arrivals; in the preceding 12-month period there were 509, which represents an almost five-fold increase year-on-year in Vietnamese arrivals
• Afghan arrivals made up 19% (5,872) of all arrivals in the 12 months to 21 April 2024, which is the same as the proportion of all arrivals in the preceding 12-month period (19% - 8,681)
• of the remaining nationalities there were 22,266 arrivals on small boats in the 12 months to 21 April 2024

Of the 129,407 initial asylum decisions received between 15 April 2023 and 14 April 2024, 93,431 were substantive decisions (56,834 grants and 36,597 refusals, which is a grant rate of 61%). This represents the highest annual number of substantive decisions on asylum cases in more than 20 years. Please see data table ‘Asy_D02’ of the Immigration system statistics data tables for full details.

The asylum initial decision WIP has decreased by 39% from 135,959 on 31 December 2022 to 83,154 on 14 April 2024, a reduction of 52,805.

The number of hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers has decreased from 398 on 22 October 2023 to 267 on 7 April 2024.

Home Office statistics published in February 2024 show that the accommodated asylum population (hotel population) on 31 December 2023 was 45,768. Provisional Home Office MI shows that the volume of asylum applicants in hotels has also decreased further between January and April 2024.

In the 12 months to 31 March 2024 there were 6,720 illegal working visits, an increase of 59% compared with the 12 months to 31 March 2023 when there were 4,237. This also represents an increase of 79% compared to January to December 2022, when there were 3,755 illegal working visits.

In the 12 months to 31 March 2024 the volume and value of civil penalties issued for illegal working was 1,676 and £30.49m. This is a 52% and 56% increase (respectively) when compared to the preceding 12-month period (1,105 and £19.49m).

In the 12 months ending 31 March 2024 there were 26,027 returns, of which 5,976 were Albanian nationals. In the preceding 12-month period ending 31 March 2023 there were 16,786 returns of which 2,419 were Albanian nationals. This equates to a year-on-year increase of 55% in all returns and almost two and half times more Albanian nationals. In the year ending 31 December 2022 there were 14,623 returns, of which 1,940 were Albanian nationals.

The volume of enforced returns has increased by 69% from 4,159 in the year ending 31 March 23 to 7,030 in the year ending 31 March 2024. In the year ending 31 December 2022 there were 3,821 enforced returns.

Provisional data quoted on this page has been extracted from live operational databases and may differ from other statistics published subsequently. The next update of the quarterly Home Office Immigration system statistics will be published on 23 May 2024.