UK posts record number of asylum requests

Over 108,000 people applied for asylum in Britain last year, government figures showed yesterday, the highest number for any 12-month period since records began in 2001.

The 108,138 applications are an 18 percent increase on 91,811 requests lodged in 2023, said the Home Office said.

The previous record was 103,081 in the 12 months to December 2002.

The figures come after Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to toughen immigration rules to make it almost impossible for undocumented migrants who arrive in the UK on boats from across the Channel to later receive citizenship.

Starmer’s Labour government is under pressure to reduce migration after Farage’s Reform UK party won roughly four million votes during the last general election.

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