Full Fact investigates claims and misinformation about asylum seekers in the UK and beyond.
Our fact checks examine statements from politicians, media reports and social media posts about numbers arriving, government policy, housing, and community impact.
Each article uses transparent data, verified official statistics and expert evidence to clarify what’s accurate, what’s misleading and what’s unproven.
Immigration
Rishi Sunak’s claim that small boat crossings are “down by a third” since he became Prime Minister is only true when looking at arrivals in 2023. Read
Immigration
The Prime Minister claimed on social media that the government had achieved its commitment to “clear the backlog of asylum decisions by the end of 2023”. Read
Immigration
A Facebook post calls for “illegal immigrants” to be deterred by stopping benefits—but people in the UK without a right to be here aren’t entitled to benefits already. Read
Immigration
We’ve looked into the detail of the government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, and whether other governments are considering similar schemes. Read
Immigration
The Conservative party deputy chair’s claim that Labour’s immigration plans would “give hundreds of thousands of migrants a golden ticket” to the UK is similar to recent comments from other ministers. Read
Immigration
Headlines about the home secretary’s speech last week were misleading, with the think tank figure she quoted a broad estimate for the number of people who may have a “notional” right to move country. Read
Immigration
Reform UK party leader Richard Tice wrongly claimed in a social media post that 50% of children seeking asylum were found to be adults. Read
Immigration
The BBC has corrected an article which claimed only 60 asylum cases were withdrawn over a 12 month period after being contacted by Full Fact. Read
Immigration
Lee Anderson appeared to suggest the government is spending £7 million a day on hotels for asylum seekers. Read
Immigration
The number of “legacy backlog” cases has fallen over the year to date, while the number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels has increased. Read
