Kinshasa, August 27th, 2026 (CPA).- The Labour government has welcomed a 21% decline in the number of asylum applications in the UK between June 2025 and June 2026, reaching its lowest annual level since 2022, according to official figures published on Thursday, the international media have reported. “This government is restoring the control over our borders and the fairness to the immigration system,” has declared Shabana Mahmood, Minister in charge of the Interior. “Since Labour came to power in July 2024, the number of asylum applications has fallen, the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels is down, arrests for illegal work are at record levels, and deportations and returns are rising sharply,” she has added. According to sources, a total of 85,891 people have applied for asylum in the UK between June 2025 and June 2026, compared with 108,585 the previous year, and 40 per cent of these applications came from people who had arrived in the country by crossing the English Channel in small boats, according to data from the UK Ministry in charge of the Interior.
A wave of protests across the country in 2023
The number of asylum seekers of accommodation housed in hotels – a highly sensitive issue in the country – has thus decreased by half, to 16,021, its lowest level since 2022 and the publication of these figures. It had peaked at 56,018 people in 2023, which had provoked a wave of protests across the country, some of which had descended into violence and riots, against the rising tide of the anti-immigration Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage. The British government has committed to end the practice of housing asylum seekers in hotels by 2029. It plans instead to move them to military bases, but this initiative meets local resistance. Like the Conservatives before them, the ruling Labour Party has announced several measures aiming to reduce immigration. A reform is currently being debated in Parliament, which aims, in particular, to tighten asylum rules. According to published figures, between June 2025 and June 2026, 42,394 people have obtained the refugee status or another form of residence permit following an initial decision on their asylum application, a figure which is down 21% year-on-year.ACP/