Asylum-seeker approvals at highest in 30 YEARS

THE HOME OFFICE has said the UK has approved its highest amount of asylum-seekers in 30 years.

Three quarters of all initial decisions on applications over the past year were grants of asylum.

The rate is even higher for the most popular nationalities who claim asylum in the UK, with 98 percent of Syrians, 97 per cent of Eritreans, 95 percent of Sudanese, 91 percent of Afghans and 88 percent of Iranians approved.

Overall asylum applications hit 55,146 in the 12 months to March 2022, the highest since 2003.

It is 7,000 higher than the previous figure recorded in the 12 months to December last year.

The asylum backlog continues to hit record levels, with 110,000 people still awaiting a decision at the end of March this year.

The backlog has been driven both by a decline in the number of decisions in 2020 and 2021 and an increase in applications, particularly during last summer.

This is a significant shift compared with a few years ago, when the majority of asylum applications were initially refused, even if many of these were later overturned on appeal.