Tracker
Small boat arrivals, the asylum backlog and returns: the official figures, updated as the Home Office publishes them.
People arriving by small boat in 2026 so far
Official figure15,242
Provisional, as of 14 August 2026
Boats successfully crossing are down 49% on last year: a bigger fall than the fall in people, meaning the boats that do cross are more crowded.
Small boat arrivals by year
Each completed year is the Home Office's final total for that calendar year. The 2026 row is a running year-to-date count and is not comparable with the full years above it: the two are easy to confuse, and a part-year tally read as an annual total is the mistake to watch for. The wider irregular-migration figure is larger than the small-boat figure in every year, because small boats are roughly 89% of detected irregular arrivals rather than all of them.
Awaiting an initial asylum decision
48,758
−55% year on year
At the end of March 2026, down from 109,536 a year earlier as the Home Office cleared initial decisions faster.
SourceMigration Observatory, asylum accommodation in the UK (31 March 2026)
Housed in asylum hotels
20,885
−35% year on year
21% of the 98,000 people in asylum accommodation at the end of March 2026, down from 42% in hotels in March 2023.
SourceMigration Observatory, asylum accommodation in the UK (31 March 2026)
Asylum-related returns
11,631
+23% year on year
31% of all returns from the UK in 2026: people removed or leaving after a refused claim.
SourceMigration Observatory, returns and removals (30 June 2026)
What counts as “irregular” arrival?
Arriving without prior permission: overwhelmingly by small boat across the Channel, plus smaller numbers detected at ports or arriving by air without adequate documents. In 2025 small boats were about 89% of all such detections.
Is claiming asylum illegal?
No. Claiming asylum is lawful under the Refugee Convention regardless of how someone entered, which is why official statistics say “irregular” rather than “illegal”. Entering without permission can be a separate offence, and whether it should be prosecuted is a live political argument.
Why do the numbers jump around so much?
Crossings are highly weather-dependent: a single calm week can produce more arrivals than a stormy month. Day-to-day figures are close to meaningless; the year-to-date comparison is the number worth watching.
What each party says it would do
Labour
Enforcement co-operation with France and faster asylum processing to cut the backlog and hotel use. Points to the year-on-year fall shown above as evidence the approach is working.
Reform
Treats crossings as the central issue in British politics and calls for sharply tougher deterrence and removals; argues falls are weather and French enforcement rather than government policy.
Conservative
Argues the fall does not go far enough and that a removals-based deterrent is needed, having pursued that approach in government to 2024.
Lib Dems
Emphasises safe and legal routes and faster decision-making, arguing that deterrence-first policy has repeatedly failed to reduce crossings.
Green
Opposes deterrence-based policy outright, favouring expanded safe routes and an end to hotel-based accommodation.
Restore
The furthest-reaching position of the six: large-scale deportation of people in the UK without permission, and a net-negative immigration target overall.
On the wording: the government’s own statistical term is “irregular migration”, because claiming asylum is lawful however someone arrived. Much of the press and several parties say “illegal immigration”. We use the official term in our own words and keep whichever term a source used. Figures are official Home Office and Commons Library statistics, reproduced as published. Daily small-boat data is provisional and revised. We publish no estimate, projection or figure of our own on this page.