Overview
- Official ONS estimates show long‑term net migration to the UK dropped 69% year on year to 204,000 in the 12 months to June 2025, with 898,000 arrivals and 693,000 departures.
- The ONS attributed the fall mainly to fewer non‑EU arrivals for work and study and a gradual rise in emigration, including more former students from India and China leaving.
- Home Office data report 36,273 asylum seekers in hotels at the end of September, up 13% from June, alongside roughly 111,000 asylum claims in the year to September 2025.
- Irregular Channel crossings remain substantial in 2025 with more than 39,000 arrivals, and the UK–France ‘one in, one out’ scheme has so far returned 153 people to France and admitted 134 by a safe route.
- Ireland’s cabinet approved measures requiring employed asylum seekers to contribute to accommodation costs, tightening family reunification and raising the residency requirement for citizenship to five years, with a review of student visa volumes underway.