108,022 Failed Asylum Seekers Not Removed from Britain Since 2010

An analysis by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford found that 108,022 people refused protection after claiming asylum between 2010 and 2024 have not been removed from Britain. The data covers individuals whose claims were rejected over that 14-year period.

Approximately 26,850 rejected applicants who first sought sanctuary between 2010 and 2016 have remained in the country for at least ten years.

Around 2,000 individuals who applied in 2010 had still not departed by March 2026, representing roughly one in four of those denied that year. The proportion of rejected applicants removed fell from 67 per cent in 2012, when 6,124 individuals were returned, to 33 per cent in 2018, when 2,328 were removed.

By the end of 2025, approximately half of all applications submitted between 2010 and 2022 that ended in rejection had resulted in departures.

Return rates differ by nationality. Albanian and Brazilian citizens face relatively high removal likelihood, while Iranian, Iraqi and Turkish nationals see far fewer deportations despite substantial numbers of rejections. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the figures make a mockery of immigration law.

"This makes a mockery of immigration law when even failed asylum seekers, most of whom are illegal immigrants, get to stay," he told the Sunday Express. "They all need to be kicked out immediately. " Philp added that unsuccessful applicants sometimes receive taxpayer-funded accommodation, contributing to the £4 billion annual asylum budget.

He said the next Conservative government would leave the ECHR and exit the Modern Slavery treaty on day one to ease removals. Reform UK's home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf said the situation was outrageous. "It is outrageous that only around half of those whose claims have been rejected have actually been removed thanks to decades of complacency from the political establishment," he said.