Asylum Seekers

Information on Asylum Seekers in Wales and the UK


Asylum Seekers

An asylum seeker is someone who is waiting for their application to be recognised as a refugee to be considered by the Government.


Asylum Seekers are dispersed to four agreed ‘dispersal’ areas in Wales by the Home Office. The agreed dispersal areas in Wales are Newport, Wrexham, Cardiff and Swansea.

UK-Wide Asylum Figures:

Asylum applications in the UK from main applicants decreased by 17% to 20,981 in the year ending March 2017. There were 3,680 asylum applications from Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children (UASC) in the year ending March 2017, a 9% increase compared to the previous year (3,389). Overall, UASC applications represented 13% of all main applications for asylum.


In the year ending March 2017, the largest number of applications for asylum came from nationals of Iran (38% grant rate), followed by Pakistan(14% grant rate) Iraq (13% grant rate), Afghanistan (35% grant rate) and Bangladesh (5% grant rate). Most applications for asylum are made by people already in the country rather than immediately on arrival in the UK at a port.


There were 1,507 grants of asylum or an alternative form of protection to Syrian main applicants at initial decision in the year ending March 2017.


An additional 5,453 people (including dependants) were granted humanitarian protection under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) in the year ending March 2017. Since this scheme began in 2014, a total of 7,307 people have been resettled


Including dependants, the UK had the sixth highest number (38,517) of asylum applications within the EU in the year ending March 2017. Germany (722,265), Italy(121,185) and France (75,990)were the 3 EU countries that received the highest number of asylum applications, together accounting over 87% of asylum applications in the EU in that period.