![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/139\/590x\/secondary\/4925187.jpg?r=1692870096033\")
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The Government says there has been a return to pre-pandemic levels of decisions on asylum applications, with 23,702 initial decisions made in the year ending June 2023, 61 percent more than 2022.<\/p>\n
In 2019, the last year prior to the Covid pandemic, 20,766 decisions were made.<\/p>\n
However more than 7 in 10 of those decisions were to grant asylum.<\/p>\n
In the Government\u2019s own words, this is \u201csubstantially higher\u201d than pre-pandemic years, when only around one-third of applications were successful at initial decisions.<\/p>\n
Prior to recent years, the highest grant rate was over 30 years ago, when 82 percent of applicants were awarded asylum in 1990.<\/p>\n
Don’t miss… <\/strong> We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n Figures also show the state of crisis on the channel, with 52,530 \u2018irregular migrants\u2019 detected entering the UK – 85 percent of whom arrived via small boats.<\/p>\n This is a 17 percent increase on the year ending June 2022.<\/p>\n Adult men represent 87 percent of small boat arrivals in the year, and have represented 75 percent of total small boat arrivals since 2018.<\/p>\n Just 10 percent have been children in the first two quarters of 2023.<\/p>\n The number of small boat crossings in the first two quarters of the year were down slightly, by 1,314, compared to the previous year, however this can likely be put down to poorer weather.<\/p>\n Over the year, almost half of small boat arrivals were from Albania (26 percent) and Afghanistan (21 percent).<\/p>\n Between July and September 2022, 11,238 Albanians made the crossing, however these numbers have since plummeted largely thanks to a new returns agreement.<\/p>\n There has been an increase in Indian arrivals in 2023, now representing the third most common nationality to make the crossing at 670 people.<\/p>\n Turkish nationals have also increased, going from being \u201crarely seen arriving on small boats\u201d to now being one of \u201cthe top small boat nationalities in 2023 so far\u201d.<\/p>\n
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