20/09/2025
Family Arguments about Asylum Seekers? Here are all of the facts you need to serve at the dinner table.
Talking about asylum seekers with family and friends can be tough. Often, opinions are loud but the facts are missing and shaped by headlines rather than evidence. It’s easy for myths to spread when people don’t check their sources.
The most effective way to respond isn’t with more opinion, but with calm, clear facts. By keeping the conversation grounded in real numbers and simple questions, you can gently challenge assumptions and make space for people to think differently.
📌 Key Facts About Asylum Seekers in the UK
🟢 Asylum seekers and refugees together make up less than one percent of the UK population — around one in every two hundred people. By comparison, countries like France, Germany and Italy take far more people seeking asylum each year.
🟢 Seeking asylum is not illegal. It is a human right under the 1951 Refugee Convention, which the UK helped to write and signed. There is also no law saying people must claim asylum in the first country they reach. Many come to the UK because they already have family here, speak the language, or have community ties that will help them rebuild their lives.
🟢 Contrary to headlines, asylum seekers are not “draining” the system. In 2023/24, the UK government spent around £4.7 billion on asylum support. That sounds like a lot, but it represents less than 0.4% of total government spending — under 40p out of every £100. Most of that money does not go to asylum seekers themselves, who live on about £6 per day, but to hotel chains, landlords and outsourcing companies who run the housing contracts and make millions in profit.
🟢 Asylum seekers are not responsible for the housing crisis either. Britain is short of more than a million homes, a shortage on a scale far greater than the roughly 370,000 asylum seekers in the country. The crisis comes from decades of under-building, speculation, and policy decisions.
🟢 Their impact on the NHS and schools is also tiny. Less than 0.5% of the population cannot be the cause of waiting lists, overstretched surgeries, or crowded classrooms. Those pressures are the result of long-term underinvestment and staff shortages.
🟢 The idea that they are “all young men” is misleading too. Many are families, women and children. Often it is the men who risk the most dangerous journeys first, with the aim of applying for family reunion to bring wives and children safely. Safe routes have been closed off, which forces people to take risks they would rather avoid.
🟢 The majority of asylum claims are genuine. In 2023, about three quarters of claims were approved, showing that most applicants really are fleeing war, persecution or dictatorship in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan and Iran.
The truth is clear: it is mathematically impossible for less than one percent of the population to cause Britain’s major national problems. Asylum seekers are not the cause of these crises — they are simply the people being scapegoated while the real reasons, such as underinvestment and political decisions, go unchallenged.
Sources for Key Facts:
Home Office Immigration Statistics (official UK data on asylum numbers and approvals)�👉 https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
Migration Observatory, University of Oxford (clear analysis of asylum, immigration and myths)�👉 https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/asylum-and-refugee-resettlement-in-the-uk/
House of Commons Library (neutral research on asylum spending and government expenditure)�👉 https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9852/
UNHCR UK (UN Refugee Agency facts and context for asylum seekers’ rights)�👉 https://www.unhcr.org/uk/asylum-in-the-uk
National Audit Office (on asylum accommodation costs and contracts)�👉 https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/asylum-accommodation-and-support/
*We know some will claim this is untrue, but every fact here comes from refugee agencies, parliamentary briefings and official/direct guidance. These are 100% official, verifiable sources, not hearsay, headlines or rumour.
