The number of foreign national offenders living in the community while facing deportation has risen by more than 2,000 in a year, amid scrutiny of Labour’s early-release sentencing policies.
New Home Office data shows 21,294 foreign criminals subject to deportation action were living outside custody in the year to June 2026, compared with 18,993 in the previous 12-month period.
Critics have linked the increase to Labour’s Sentencing Act, under which thousands of offenders have been released ahead of schedule as ministers try to ease severe overcrowding across the prison estate.
At the time of the 2024 General Election, the number of foreign offenders awaiting deportation stood at 17,677, underlining the scale of the subsequent rise.
The latest figures also show that the number of asylum seekers being accommodated outside hotels has now climbed above 73,000.
According to the Home Office, 73,068 asylum seekers were living in “non-hotel” accommodation — including shared houses, flats and military sites — in the year to June 2026, a 3 per cent increase on the year before.
Ministers have continued efforts to reduce the use of hotels for migrant accommodation, with the number of people housed in them dropping by 50 per cent to 16,021, the lowest level recorded since 2022. The total had peaked at 56,018 at the end of September 2023.
In a separate development, a record number of migrants applied to settle in the UK over the past year, as foreign nationals moved to secure their immigration status before stricter rules take effect.
The number of migrants granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR) climbed to 199,628 in the year to June 2026, up 24 per cent on the previous year and the highest annual total for 16 years.
Reforms due to be introduced this autumn by Shabana Mahmood will lengthen the time many migrants must spend in the UK before qualifying for the status, which allows them to live, work and study permanently in Britain.
The Home Secretary will increase the qualifying period for ILR from five to ten years for most migrants, while lower-paid foreign workers could face waits of up to 15 years and refugees could wait at least 20 years.
Another 245,520 people were granted British citizenship over the last year. Although down 4 per cent on the previous year, the figure remains close to record highs.
Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels for asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament. Another 13 such hotels closed earlier this month as the Government continued the process of moving people into alternative accommodation.
The total number of hotels in use is now below 160, having peaked at around 400 under the Conservatives.
Ministers are increasing the use of more ‘basic’ sites, including former military barracks – prompting a backlash from local communities who are required to accommodate a large influx of young men.
Labour announced in June that it planned to house migrants at three former bases, including RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire.
Andy Burnham defended the proposal, arguing that people in more affluent areas would have to ‘do their share’ in housing asylum seekers, as the number of small boat migrants arriving in the UK under his premiership topped 3,000.
For two of the sites, MoD Bicester in Oxfordshire and MoD Barnham in Suffolk, the Government is pursuing a fast-track planning process under which applications are submitted directly to Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, rather than being considered first by the local council.
Calum Miller, the Lib Dem MP for Bicester & Woodstock, said Mr Burnham was ‘bypassing local scrutiny’ and showing ‘contempt’ for local people.
Today’s figures showed that a total of 85,891 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2026, down 21 per cent from 108,585 in the previous year.
It is the lowest 12-month total since the year to June 2022, when applications stood at 75,668.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the figures showed the Government was ‘restoring control at our border and fairness to the migration system’.
A group of small boat migrants are brought ashore at Dover earlier this month
Small boat migrants accounted for 40 per cent (33,949) of all asylum applicants in the 12 months to June 2026.
More than half of asylum seekers arrived through illegal entry routes, such as small boats, while a further 41 per cent of claimants had previously held a visa or other leave.
The top five nationalities for asylum claimants overall were Eritrean, Sudanese, Afghan, Somali and Iranian.
There were 40,168 people waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2026.
This is down 56 per cent from 90,812 a year earlier at the end of June 2025 and is the lowest number since March 2019.
The total peaked at 175,457 at the end of June 2023, the highest level since current records began in 2010.
The number of people waiting more than 12 months for an initial decision stood at 11,014 at the end of June, down 61 per cent from 27,998 a year earlier.
Responding to the latest figures, Ms Mahmood said: ‘A little over two years into office and the asylum backlog is down, the number of asylum seekers in hotels is falling, illegal working arrests are at record levels, and deportations and returns are up markedly.
‘Small boats numbers are also now falling, but we are not complacent and there is more we must do.
‘That is why I have boosted enforcement on the French beaches and overseas and introduced new legislation to tackle the pull factors that draw people here through unsafe and illegal routes.
‘This Government is restoring control at our border and fairness to the migration system.’
It comes as human rights chiefs faced an angry backlash after claiming Britain is not generous enough to migrants.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said ministers were not doing enough to prevent asylum seekers falling into poverty and that more should be given access to benefits to comply with UN standards.
It also criticised the Government for scrapping a programme designed to help refugees write CVs and find jobs. But opponents said increasing benefits would create an even greater ‘pull factor’, encouraging more dangerous small boat Channel crossings.
