// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Number of asylum seekers in hotels halves in a year
There has been a significant fall in the use of hotels to house asylum seekers waiting for a Home Office decision, data shows.
In June 2025 there were more than 32,000 people in hotel rooms, but by June this year it had halved to more than 16,000.
There has also been a drop in legal migration arrivals, asylum claims and small boat arrivals to the UK compared to a year ago.
The Home Office said the figures showed that policies to control migration were having an effect - but said there was still more to do on the issue of small boat crossings.
Track UK's latest migration numbers - net migration, visas, asylum and small boats
There was also a fall in the number of family members coming to the UK to join someone already legally in the country, while asylum claims were also down by a fifth.
Some 38,000 illegal arrivals were detected in the year to June - 33,000 of them on small boats across the sea from France.
More up to date figures show the trend in small boat arrivals has continued to be lower than last year. Correspondingly, claims for asylum have also fallen.
Some 86,000 people sought asylum - down a fifth on the previous year. About half of those applications for help came from people who were already legally in the UK, rather than having arrived on a small boat.
The rise in the use of hotels coincided with an increase in arrivals across the English Channel from 2019 and a slowing down of Home Office decisions as to how many of these claimants had a genuine right to stay in the UK or should be told to leave.