Dr. Akhtar Gulfam Editor-in-Chief Daily Dawn, Director News Dawn TV
London: According to the latest figures released by the UK Home Office, Pakistani nationals filed the highest number of asylum applications in the UK during the financial year 2024-25, with a total of 11,048 Pakistanis submitting asylum applications during this period.
According to a report by Truth International, the applications received from Pakistanis account for 10.1% of the total applications, a significant increase compared to the previous year, when Pakistani nationality-based asylum applications were in third place.
The total number of asylum applications in the UK reached 109,343 in the year to March 2025, the highest annual number since records began in 2001.
This is a 17% increase compared to the 93,150 applications recorded in the 12 months ending March 2024 last year.
The sharp increase in asylum applications from Pakistani nationals is notable, as 7,03 applications were made by Pakistanis in the financial year 2023-24, which was 7.5% of the total applications. The figures for 2024-25 reflect an increasing trend and Pakistan has now overtaken the countries that have historically been at the top.
Afghan nationals came in second after Pakistan, who filed 8,069 asylum applications (7.4%), down from 9,738 applications (10.5%) last year, when Afghanistan was the top country.
There was also a significant increase in the number of Syrian nationals, who made 6,175 applications (5.6%), up from 4,232 (4.5%) in 2023-24.
A large number of asylum seekers (33%) arrived in the UK by boat, highlighting the growing problem of irregular migration.
Although new asylum applications have increased, the number of pending cases has fallen significantly, with 109,536 people awaiting a preliminary decision as of March 2025, a 12% decrease compared to 124,802 pending cases in December 2024.
This is the lowest number recorded since December 2021, with the number of applicants awaiting a decision for more than six months also falling to 67,373, down from 73,866 in the previous quarter, and a significant drop from the peak of 139,961 recorded in June 2023.
The start of 2025 also saw a slight drop in the number of forced deportations of people who were not legally eligible to stay in the UK.
2,312 people were deported between January and March, compared with 2,365 in the last quarter of 2024, both of which are higher than in any quarter since 2018.
UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper highlighted the government’s focus on strengthening immigration enforcement.
He said: “We have significantly increased immigration enforcement and taken tough measures to return foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers who have no right to stay in the UK.”
Yvette Cooper stressed that the upcoming immigration white paper reforms will include tough measures, aimed at quickly deporting foreign nationals who are not eligible to stay in the UK.
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