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<p>The Home Office publishes information on asylum in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release"
target="_blank">Immigration statistics quarterly release</a>. Section 2.2 of the ‘<a
href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-year-ending-september-2021/how-many-people-do-we-grant-asylum-or-protection-to"
target="_blank">How many people do we grant asylum or protection to?</a>’ chapter
includes international comparisons on the number of people applying for asylum in
the UK and in the EU+ (as published by <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat" target="_blank">Eurostat</a>).</p><p>There
were 37,235 people (applicants and their dependants) who applied for asylum in the
UK in the year ending June 2021 (the latest comparable statistics available). This
is less than France (87,180) and Spain (67,425), but higher than Italy (24,885) and
Greece (24,275). When looking at the EU+ and UK together, the UK received the 4th
largest number of applicants, or 8% of the total asylum applicants across the EU+
and UK combined over that period (France and Spain received the second and third largest).</p><p>Asylum
applications in the UK and the EU have declined in the latest year, in part due to
the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the fall in applications seen by the EU+ (the EU,
EEA and Switzerland) (-21%) was steeper than the decline in applications to the UK
(-9%).</p><p>The number of applications to the UK has remained fairly stable in the
last 5 years in comparison with the EU, where application numbers have fluctuated
more.</p>
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