Small boats and other confiscated equipment used to cross the channel stored at a Home Office facility in November last year. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenSmall boats and other confiscated equipment used to cross the channel stored at a Home Office facility in November last year. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty ImagesNumber of asylum seekers living in hotels across UK halves within a yearSmall boat crossings also down 23% year-on-year, with Home Office citing more trafficking arrests
The number of asylum seekers living in hotels has halved within a year, including 13 closures over the past month alone, according to new migration statistics.
Sweeping changes to the asylum system have also seen a significant drop in legal arrivals and asylum claims. But the numbers of asylum seekers who are now being housed in private accommodation has increased, as the government shifts numbers being housed in hotels into privately rented houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).
There are 16,021 asylum seekers who remain housed in 160 hotels across the UK – an issue that has been a flash point for the far right, especially last summer. The numbers are down 50% year-on-year and down 71% from the September 2023 peak of 56,018.
The government has pledged to end the use of asylum hotels by the end of the parliament. But tens of thousands of people are still housed in other forms of contingency accommodation – which has often been highly controversial also, both in local communities and because of the conditions of the housing for a vulnerable group of people. The latest figures show 69,038 are now housed in temporary accommodation.
View image in fullscreenA counter-protest takes place near an anti-immigration rally in Maidstone, Kent earlier this month. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesThe shift from asylum hotels to other forms of accommodation has led to a fall of 8% in Home Office spending. However, the Guardian revealed earlier this month that the government is considering paying higher prices for housing asylum seekers in private rental properties as part of Andy Burnham’s plan to spread accommodation more evenly across the country.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said the figures showed her government is “restoring control at our border and fairness to the migration system”.
“A little over two years into office and the asylum backlog is down,” she said, “the number of asylum seekers in hotels is falling, illegal working arrests are at record levels, and deportations and returns are up markedly.”
Small boat crossings to the UK have also fallen by 23% year-on-year, which Home Office officials said was down to a combination of more trafficking arrests and more interceptions by French police.
The previous prime minister, Keir Starmer, struck a deal with the French government to deport some would-be migrants back to France in exchange for a safe and legal route to the UK: known as the “one in, one out” policy.
However, the new figures from the Home Office show the introduction of the scheme has led to a record 210 incidents of use of force against deportees, including 181 occasions where restraint equipment was used, a figure that has doubled since the start of the French scheme. Charities say they have documented injuries sustained by asylum seekers as they are removed back to France.
Mahmood said there was still more to do to deter small boat Channel crossings. “Small boats numbers are also now falling, but we are not complacent and there is more we must do,” she said.
“That is why I have boosted enforcement on the French beaches and overseas and introduced new legislation to tackle the pull factors that draw people here through unsafe and illegal routes.”
Read moreNuni Jorgensen, from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, told PA the government has largely been able to close hotels because asylum decisions were being made more quickly, but added that there is now an asylum appeals backlog in the courts.
The figures also show that the number of businesses stripped of the right to sponsor migrant workers has surged to its highest levels since the post-Brexit scheme was introduced.
Analysis of quarterly migration statistics and a freedom of information request by workplace justice charity the Work Rights Centre show the number of revocations of licences to sponsor migrant workers surged to 4,403 in the 12 months to June 2026, from 1,828 in 2025.
The skilled worker visa sponsorship scheme was introduced to fill post-Brexit skills shortages in sectors such as care. However, unions and charities have been warning that the scheme facilitates exploitation.
In some cases, workers have complained of employers using the fact their migration status is tied to their job to underpay and force them to work long hours, while others, such as Shabin Shaji, whose case the Guardian reported on earlier this year, paid cash to recruiters to secure a role in the UK, but was left destitute after their employer “ghosted” them.
