UK grants more asylum than most of Europe

Since Brexit, approval rates for those seeking to stay are now double those of France and Sweden

BRITAIN is granting asylum to more migrants than the vast majority of other European countries after a doubling in approvals of applications since Brexit, analysis of official figures reveals.

Asylum approval rates for migrants arriving in the UK hit a high of 75.1 per cent in the year ending September 2023, up from 31.1 per cent in 2018, according to an analysis of official data from 33 European nations.

It means the UK has jumped from 26th to seventh in the league table of the European nations with the highest initial approval rates. It is topped by countries such as Ireland, Portugal, the Netherlands and Estonia. The UK’s approval rates for asylum seekers are now double those of countries such as France (30.6 per cent) and Sweden (32.2 per cent).

They are also 50 per cent higher than southern EU nations like Italy (46 per cent) and Greece (52.9 per cent), both of which have faced surges of illegal migration across the Mediterranean.

The increase in approval rates has been partly attributed to the UK’s failure to negotiate a new “Dublin” returns agreement with the EU which means the UK has rejected fewer asylum seekers on the basis that they have passed through a safe third country in Europe.

It has also coincided with increased conflict and instability in the Middle East and central Asia which has seen a surge in numbers of asylum seekers from countries such as Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Sudan. Migrants from all of these nations have traditionally had high approval rates.

However, Whitehall insiders blamed a system where caseworkers were making asylum decisions based on “over-cautious” case law that set thresholds for positive decisions “incredibly low.” They said guidance for caseworkers on the “safety” of countries was also out of date. “If there is the slightest chance that you were being persecuted in the country of origin, asylum caseworkers will grant them,” said a source. “The asylum tribunals have case law which sets the threshold incredibly low and in a risk averse way that errs on the side of caution.

“What is the point of them flooding the tribunal with rejections that the tribunals are then going to overturn en masse. Often the case law is not easily unpickable by primary legislation. It is bound up in treaty obligations and article rights which means you run headfirst into international law obligations that make things difficult.”

Romania had the lowest grant rate at 14.4 per cent, followed by Cyprus on 17.8 per cent, Malta on 28.3 per cent, France on 30.6 per cent, Iceland on 30.9 per cent and Sweden on 31.4 per cent.

Estonia had the highest grant rate at 97.7 per cent, followed by Switzerland on 87.1 per cent, Ireland on 83 per cent, Portugal on 81.9 per cent, Netherlands on 81.7 per cent, Lithuania on 80.2 per cent and then the UK on 75.1 per cent.

Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst at the Refugee Council, said it was “well understood” that people who had fled tyrannical regimes such as Afghanistan, Eritrea and Iran or conflict in countries such as Syria and Sudan should be given protection. Since 2021, migrants from those five countries have accounted for more than half of all asylum decisions in the UK.

“The Government’s focus should be on running a fair and humane asylum system that makes good quality decisions in a reasonable period of time,” said Mr Featonby.

Oxford University’s migration observatory said that there had been a sharp decline in the number of migrants being refused asylum because they had travelled through safe countries before reaching Britain.

Before Brexit, asylum seekers could be returned to those countries under the “Dublin” agreement.

It has not been renewed, however, which has meant that the number of people being subject to third-country refusals fall from 3,300 in 2020 to only 50 in 2021.