Home Office · Immigration system statistics: small boat arrivals, asylum claims and NRM referrals datasets
Small boat arrivals by whether an asylum claim was raised
7,032people
Small boat arrivals by whether an asylum claim was raised were 7,032 people in 2025 Q4, down 38.2% (4,343) from 11,375 in 2024 Q4.
▼ 38.2% · −4,343 against 2024 Q4 (same quarter previous year)
- Home Office count
- 2025 Q4
- published 27 August 2026
- IER_D02
- row “all rows”
- column “Arrivals”
- cell value sum of 340 rows
The series is falling. Rule: down 38.2% from 2024 Q4 to 2025 Q4.
2018 Q2 to 2025 Q4
The chart as a table
| Period | Small boat arrivals by whether an asylum claim was raised |
|---|---|
| 2018 Q2 | 4 people |
| 2018 Q3 | 15 people |
| 2018 Q4 | 266 people |
| 2019 Q1 | 199 people |
| 2019 Q2 | 393 people |
| 2019 Q3 | 745 people |
| 2019 Q4 | 496 people |
| 2020 Q1 | 464 people |
| 2020 Q2 | 2,017 people |
| 2020 Q3 | 4,495 people |
| 2020 Q4 | 1,430 people |
| 2021 Q1 | 1,361 people |
| 2021 Q2 | 4,534 people |
| 2021 Q3 | 10,872 people |
| 2021 Q4 | 11,256 people |
| 2022 Q1 | 4,513 people |
| 2022 Q2 | 8,075 people |
| 2022 Q3 | 20,318 people |
| 2022 Q4 | 12,572 people |
| 2023 Q1 | 3,690 people |
| 2023 Q2 | 7,145 people |
| 2023 Q3 | 12,917 people |
| 2023 Q4 | 4,448 people |
| 2024 Q1 | 5,312 people |
| 2024 Q2 | 7,827 people |
| 2024 Q3 | 11,384 people |
| 2024 Q4 | 11,375 people |
| 2025 Q1 | 6,562 people |
| 2025 Q2 | 13,167 people |
| 2025 Q3 | 13,834 people |
| 2025 Q4 | 7,032 people |
What this measures
The number of people detected arriving in the UK by small boat across the Channel in each quarter, split by whether they raised an asylum claim.
What this doesn’t measure
The outcome of the claims, claims raised long after arrival in later data revisions, or people who arrived undetected.
Important caveat
Detected small boat arrivals summed from the Home Office detailed dataset; official statistics in development, not accredited official statistics. Nationality, sex and age group are as recorded at detection, and a share of recent arrivals is "Not currently recorded". Undetected arrivals are not included. Data for 2026 Q1 onwards is provisional and will be revised.
Revision history
No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.
Source
- Publisher
- Home Office
- Publication
- Immigration system statistics: small boat arrivals, asylum claims and NRM referrals datasets
- Release
- Year ending June 2026, published 27 August 2026
- Source file
- ier.xlsx
- File SHA-256
- 72071ed0ce3777a2cbad25672b76ca49a526e5eeb35e7cabb3a3a67e4d9157d0
- Retrieved
- 4 September 2026
- Sheet
- Data_IER_D02
- Table
- IER_D02
- Row
- all rows
- Column
- Arrivals
- Cell value
- sum of 340 rows
- Geography
- United Kingdom
- Unit
- people
- API
- /api/metrics/small_boat_arrivals_by_asylum_claim · /series · /vintages
Government periods
Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.
| Labour 2024– | 7,8272024 Q2 | 7,0322025 Q4 | ↓ 10.2% |
| Conservative 2019–2024 | 7452019 Q3 | 7,8272024 Q2 | ↑ 950.6% |
- Release
- Year ending June 2026 · publication page
- Last updated
- 27 August 2026
- Next scheduled release
- 26 November 2026 (official date)