Yorkshire and the Humber asylum seeker factsheet
A simple, factual guide to some of the region’s asylum seeker numbers.
The number of asylum seekers in Yorkshire and the Humber being supported as of June 2025 is 9,686 out of a total of 106,075 being supported across the UK (94,187 in England, 6,107 in Scotland, 3,246 in Wales and 2,535 in Northern Ireland).
To be clear, an asylum seeker, as defined by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, is “someone who is seeking international protection” and “refugee status”. The status isn’t conferred automatically, with asylum seekers needing to go down a legal routes to be recognised this way.
“Seeking asylum is a human right and every person in the world has the right to apply for asylum if they are fleeing conflict or persecution,” the UNHCR states. “They must not be expelled or returned to situations where their lives or freedoms would be in danger.”
In England, out of the nine official regions, Yorkshire and the Humber is ranked fourth in terms of the number of asylum seekers receiving support within its borders. Ahead of it is the West Midlands (13,270), London (17,161) and the North West (21,196). The South West has the lowest number (4,520).
In previous updates, the figure was 9,726 for the year ending March 2025, 10,194 for the year ending December 2024, 10,488 for the year ending September 2024 and 9,956 for the year ending June 2024. Slightly further back, for the year ending March 2023, it was 10,623.
Initial accommodation
Of the 9,686 asylum seekers currently being supported, 292 are in initial accommodation. Initial accommodation is one of the two main types of accommodation available to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute (and therefore in urgent need of somewhere to live). You can think of it as emergency support.
This type of accommodation is typically shared, based in a “hostel-type environment or hotel” and usually full board with all essential living needs taken care of. Asylum seekers in initial accommodation will not receive any payment from the government.
Asylum seekers will remain housed in initial accommodation as they wait for a decision on whether they qualify for full asylum support (also known as section 95 support). This is provided to asylum seekers who are waiting to have their claim for asylum processed or those appealing a decision that has not gone their way.
Dispersal accommodation
Of the 9,686 asylum seekers receiving support, 6,956 are in dispersal accommodation. Dispersal accommodation is described as being “longer-term temporary accommodation” and is available to asylum seekers who have been approved to receive full asylum support. As with initial accommodation, asylum seekers generally have no choice about where they end up living.
Dispersal accommodation, which is managed by three private companies (Serco, Mears and Clearsprings Ready Homes), is usually self-catered and “could be in a flat, house, hostel or bed and breakfast”.
The cost of the accommodation is covered and every person in a household gets £49.18 a week (approximately £7 a day, £196.72 a month) to cover the cost of essential living needs (e.g. food, clothing and toiletries). That can be contrasted with jobseeker’s allowance, which is £72.90 a week for those up to the age of 24 and and £92.05 for those 25 and over.
Children aged between 5–17 are permitted to attend school (government guidance states that they “must” attend). Adult asylum seekers are not allowed to work in the UK and “not eligible for mainstream welfare benefits” either.
Contingency accommodation
Of the 9,686 asylum seekers receiving support, 216 are classed as being subsistence only, while 2,222 are categorised as being in contingency accommodation.
According to the government, contingency accommodation is “temporary accommodation (including hotels) used when there is insufficient initial or dispersal accommodation available”.
“In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of ‘contingency’ asylum accommodation because of the limited availability of initial and dispersal accommodation,” the House of Lords Library has explained.
“It has mostly been provided in the form of hotel rooms, procured for the use of asylum accommodation … The Home Office has used contingency accommodation to ensure it met its statutory obligations to provide accommodation and subsistence support to all destitute asylum seekers while their applications were being decided.”
The total number of asylum seekers in hotel-based contingency accommodation as of June 2025 is 32,059. At the end of December 2024 it was 38,079, in June 2024 it was 29,585 and in September 2023 it was 56,042.
(There are currently 210 hotels across the UK being used to house asylum seekers, down from 213 from July 2024 and a peak of around 400 in 2023. The Home Office estimates the cost of housing asylum seekers in hotel accommodation to have been £2.1 billion for the financial year 24/25, which was roughly £5.77 million a day. The previous year it was £3 billion and £8.3 million a day.)
That can be contrasted with the numbers in dispersal accommodation. For the end of June 2025 it was 66,234, at the end of December 2024 it was 65,707, in June 2024 it was 61,778 and in September 2023 it was 58,444.
Asylum applications and small boat claim
The number of people claiming asylum in the UK for the year ending June 2025 was 111,084. For the year ending 2024 it was 97,107 and for 2023 it was 91,811, for 2022 it was 99,939, for 2021 it was 58,532, for 2020 it was 36,986 and for 2019 it was 45,537.
The number of people claiming asylum from small boat arrivals for the year ending June 2025 was 41,870. For the year ending 2024 it was 29,854, for 2023 it was 27,618, for 2022 it was 41,188, for 2021 it was 25,276, for 2020 it was 8,276 and for 2019 it was 1,813.
To note, the UK government provides no mechanism for asylum seekers to apply for asylum outside of the UK. That means asylum seekers have to physically be in the UK to claim asylum here. According to the International Rescue Committee, “there are very few safe routes for refugees to travel to the UK” and that the “few existing pathways are extremely restricted by nationality and number”.
Asylum application success rate
For the year ending June 2025, 52% of asylum applications at the initial decision were unsuccessful. According to the UK government, “the grant rate at initial decision has fallen in the latest year but is still higher than in any year prior to 2019”.
In terms of actual numbers of people, 51,997 asylum seekers were granted refugee status in the UK for the same period. This was 24% less than in the previous year. Nationalities that had a high success rate with asylum applications were Sudan and Syria (98%), followed by Eritrea (87%). The top nationalities claiming asylum in the year ending June 2025 were Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea and Bangladesh.
The number of refugees in the UK is around 515,682, according to the UNHCR, which is less than 1% of the total population. Most have come from Ukraine (approximately 255,000), followed by Afghanistan (approximately 54,900) and Iran (approximately 37,700).
Asylum seekers as a percentage of migrants
According to asylum statistics from the House of Commons Library, dated May 2025, asylum seekers and refugees made up only 16% of immigrants to the UK last year. That equates to around 125,000 people.
According to the Office for National Statistics, approximately 948,000 people classed as long-term migrants came to the UK for the year ending December 2024. Around 517,000 left the UK. Overall net migration was 431,000, representing a decrease of 50%.