Hillingdon can today be named as Britain’s asylum seeker hotspot.
For every 10,000 residents in the West London borough, Government statistics show 97 are asylum seekers.
The overwhelming majority are currently being housed in hotels, under a nationwide scheme that costs taxpayers almost £3billion a year.
MailOnline’s interactive map today reveals the number of asylum seekers supported across the UK as of the end of 2024.
Latest data, released by the House of Commons Library, shows 109,100 are currently being housed.
Yet critics moan they are not evenly spread out, with locals in asylum seeker hotspots admitting they have been left feeling unsafe walking around at night.
Fifty-nine of the 361 authorities accommodate none.
Home Office policy is to disperse them around the country, and officials say they are not given a choice as to location and the accommodation.
The West London borough of Hillingdon (pictured) is Britain’s asylum seeker hotspot
Robert Bates, of the Centre for Migration Control, said: ‘The research presented here shows that the burden of this crisis is falling disproportionately on the shoulders of communities in the Red Wall and overstretched local councils across the north.
‘The large numbers being accommodated in London also makes it far too easy for these individuals to simply disappear into the grey-economy, slip out of sight of authorities, and remain in Britain without the right to do so.’
Of the total number of asylum seekers, 42,800 were living in ‘initial accommodation’, which is meant to be shorter term.
The vast majority of people in this category live in hotels, with dozens in use across the UK.
Another 65,700 were housed in longer-term ‘dispersal accommodation’, managed by providers on behalf of the Home Office.
In terms of raw numbers, Glasgow (4,193) accommodated more than Hillingdon.
But, when taking into account population, this equated to a rate of 67 asylum seekers for every 10,000 residents, putting it fourth in the league table.
Behind Hillingdon, when only considering rates, came Hounslow (73 per 10,000) and Halton in Merseyside (70).
Mr Bates said: ‘The Home Office grants asylum far too readily. Labour have undone Tory efforts to deny the status to those who enter Britain illegally.
‘This is a huge pull factor and has resulted in a system now creaking at the seams – costing the taxpayer over £6bn a year.
Migrants wave to a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France on April 26, 2024
In terms of raw numbers, Glasgow (pictured) accommodated the most with 4,193 asylum seekers
‘Freezing the asylum system whilst we try to deal with the huge backlog is the only viable way forward.
‘The British public have had enough of this farce.
‘It is a burning injustice at the heart of our society that economic illegal migrants are displacing British families in housing queues, have round-the-clock access to welfare support.
‘It smacks of an establishment which cares more about international obligations than the wellbeing, safety and happiness of its own people.’
The Home Office said it was working towards ‘a fair and equitable distribution of asylum accommodation across the UK’.
Last month the people of a quiet picture-postcard Essex village said they are about to become outnumbered by asylum seekers housed at a former RAF airfield next door.
While Wethersfield has a population of 707 people, the Home Office plans to boost the number of migrants at MDP Wethersfield to 800.
Villagers said they do not feel safe walking the streets and country lanes at night due to the threat of anti-social behaviour by groups of men from the UK’s biggest facility for asylum seekers roaming the area.
Those living nearest the base, previously the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) HQ, and before that a WW2 RAF and US airbase, say their houses are now unsellable.
More than 108,000 individuals applied for asylum in the UK during 2024 – the highest annual number ever recorded. Yet half were refused at the initial decision.
A worried group gather in Manchester in November 2024 to protest against asylum seekers being housed locally
Britain’s small boats crisis has fuelled the growing toll, with tens of thousands having trekked across the channel seeking a better life since 2018.
In 2023, asylum seekers and refugees made up around 11 per cent of immigrants to the UK.
Mr Bates believes the only way to prevent the small boats crisis of asylum seekers is to create a proper deterrent.
He said: ‘A deterrent like the Rwanda plan is the only way forward.
‘It would ease pressures on local public services whilst also sending a clear message to would-be channel crossers that they will never have the right to live in our country if they enter illegally.
‘Simply rubber-stamping asylum claims, as the Labour government is doing, only compounds the problem and means many undeserving individuals are being given refugee status.
‘The sluggish removal of failed applicants gums up the system, requires the continuing use of hotels, and gives too many opportunities for the applicant to just disappear.’
It comes as the total cost of accommodating asylum seekers in hotels is now £5.5million every day, according to figures obtained by The Times.
The number of migrants living in hotels at the expense of taxpayers has also risen by 8,500 under Labour.
The increase comes despite their election manifesto pledge to ‘end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds’.
Pictured: An inflatable dinghy carrying migrants makes its way towards England
Figures showed there were 38,079 in hotels at the end of December, up from 29,585 at the end of June – an increase of 29 per cent.
The Home Office is yet to set a definite end date on migrant hotels as it does not want to commit to ‘arbitrary targets’.
Earlier this week a source said: ‘Setting a date would be setting us up to fail. We don’t want to become a hostage to fortune like we saw under the last government’s failed pledges.’
The only vague timeframe given by the department was by Matthew Rycroft, the department’s top civil servant, last month.
He told MPs that the aim is to get to ‘zero by the end of the parliament’, leaving open the possibility migrant hotels could stay until August 2029.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘The government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, with almost £9 million per day being spent on asylum hotels in late 2023, and more than 400 hotels in use across the country.
‘We are determined to restore order to the asylum system to ensure it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly, and we are also committed to cut the unacceptably high costs of asylum accommodation, including ending the use of hotels altogether over time.
‘In the interim, the Home Office is continuing to work towards a fair and equitable distribution of asylum accommodation across the UK and maintaining an ongoing dialogue with local authorities across the UK to ensure they have the support they need.’
