Number of asylum seekers in hotels halves in a year

There has been a significant fall in the use of hotels to house asylum seekers waiting for a Home Office decision, data shows.

In June 2025 there were more than 32,000 people in hotel rooms, but by June this year it had halved to more than 16,000.

There has also been a drop in legal migration arrivals, asylum claims and small boat arrivals to the UK compared to a year ago.

The Home Office said the figures showed that policies to control migration were having an effect - but said there was still more to do on the issue of small boat crossings.

Track UK's latest migration numbers - net migration, visas, asylum and small boats

There was also a fall in the number of family members coming to the UK to join someone already legally in the country, while asylum claims were also down by a fifth.

Some 38,000 illegal arrivals were detected in the year to June - 33,000 of them on small boats across the sea from France.

More up to date figures show the trend in small boat arrivals has continued to be lower than last year. Correspondingly, claims for asylum have also fallen.