It all depends where you pull the figures from, So I got these from .gov website
Oddly Albania now is the biggest illegal immigration population- which is a safe country. That makes them economic immigrants, illegally entering the UK
Of those small boat arrivals who have received an initial decision (7,805) since 2018:
- 53% (4,171) were granted refugee status or another type of leave since 2018
Accepted
From Sept 2022 things begin to change
31,891 applied for asylum
139 received initial decision
46 granted
57 refused
36 not considered third countries
Now there is the illegal immigration bill March 2023
Enjoy
In January to September 2022, half of small boat arrivals were from just these two nationalities - Albanians (35%) and Afghans (15%), as shown in Figure 4. In the latest quarter alone (July to September 2022), 45% of small boat arrivals were Albanian (9,076), and there were days where as many as 80% of arrivals were Albanian.
Figure 4 – Top nationalities arriving via small boats, as a percentage (%) of total small boat arrivals1,2, January 2018 to September 2022
Source: Irregular Migration to the UK data tables - Irr_02b
Notes:
- The top nationalities are those with the highest number of small boat arrivals since January 2018.
- The chart does not include arrivals where information on nationality was not yet available in the dataset.
The number of Albanians arriving on small boats has increased substantially in 2022, particularly from May. Prior to this point, Albanians were not commonly detected on small boats. However, there were 11,241 Albanians recorded arriving on small boats between January and September 2022 (96% of whom arrived between May and September), compared with just 264 detected in the same period the previous year (January to September 2021).
The number of Afghans arriving on small boats has also increased since summer 2021. There were 4,781 arrivals between January and September 2022 (57% of whom arrived between July and September), compared to 1,437 Afghan arrivals in the whole of 2021, 494 in 2020, 69 in 2019 and 3 in 2018.
Figures in this section exclude those where the nationality and demographic data has not yet been added to the electronic record (labelled as ‘Not currently recorded’ in the data tables).
4. Asylum claims from small boat arrivals
Note: data on small boat arrivals in the month of September 2022 are not included in the year ending September 2022 (1 Oct 2021 to 31 August 2022) figures below, as data on asylum claims from small boat arrivals are not yet available for this month due to a change in how cases are recorded.
The majority of small boat arrivals claim asylum. In the year ending September 2022 (1 Oct 2021 to 31 August 2022), 90% (31,891 of 35,345 arrivals) claimed asylum or were recorded as a dependant on an asylum application. Small boat arrivals account for 41% of the total number of people claiming asylum in the year ending September 2022.
Most asylum claims from small boat arrivals are still awaiting a decision; more recent periods will naturally have a higher proportion of asylum applications awaiting a decision, as less time has passed to allow for applications to be processed. 98% (28,529) of small boat asylum applications in the latest year, or 83% (43,476) of all small boat asylum applications since 2018, are awaiting a decision.
Table 1: Small boat arrivals applying for asylum and initial decision outcomes on their applications, 2018 – September 20221,2,3
| Total to date (2018 to September 2022) | Year ending September 2022 | Year ending September 2022 as a percentage of total to date |
|---|
| Small boat arrivals | 62,814 | 35,345 | 56% |
| Asylum applicants (people) | 57,703 | 31,891 | 55% |
| Of which, applications (main applicants only) | 52,294 | 29,049 | 56% |
| Applications awaiting a decision | 43,476 | 28,529 | 66% |
| Applications withdrawn | 1,013 | 381 | 38% |
| Applications which received an initial decision | 7,805 | 139 | 2% |
| of which: | | | |
| granted refugee status or other leave | 4,171 | 46 | 1% |
| refused | 646 | 57 | 9% |
| not considered on third country grounds | 2,988 | 36 | 1% |
Notes:
- Data exclude the month of September 2022 as it is not yet available due to a change in how cases are recorded.
- Applications awaiting a decision, withdrawn, and which received a decision are a count of applications, not people (i.e. exclude dependants).
- Applications granted includes grants of refugee status, humanitarian protection and other forms of leave.
Of those small boat arrivals who have received an initial decision (7,805) since 2018:
- 53% (4,171) were granted refugee status or another type of leave
- 8% (646) were refused, for reasons such as their asylum claim being ‘clearly unfounded’, or the claimant not meeting the requirements for refugee status or other forms of leave
- 38% (2,988) of applications were not considered on third country grounds – this means that the UK will not consider the asylum claim (and will instead seek the person’s removal to a safe third country), because the applicant was present or had a connection to a safe third country where they could reasonably have been expected to claim asylum before reaching the UK
Albania was the top small boat arriving nationality applying for asylum in the year ending September 2022, making up 24% of total small boat arrivals applying for asylum in that period. Of the 8,466 Albanian small boat arrivals in the year ending September 2022, 85% applied for asylum (7,219 people, relating to 6,624 applications). Of these applications, 152 were withdrawn (2%) and 50 have received an initial decision (<1%), with the following outcomes:
- 26% (13) were not considered on third country grounds
- 74% (37) were refused for other reasons
- None were granted refugee status or another type of leave
