Asylum seekers

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.

25 July 2016

Refugees in Lebanon and the UK

Exact figures are hard to come by, but it seems correct to say that there are 10 times as many refugees in Lebanon as in the UK.

9 June 2016

Have 5,000 jihadis come into the EU?

Claims that there are 5,000 terrorists loose in Europe have been attributed to the director of Europol, the EU law enforcement agency. He says otherwise.

16 November 2015

UK aid to Syria

David Cameron claims that the UK is the second largest contributor of humanitarian aid in the Syrian crisis. This is right, according to the United Nations.

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23 September 2015

The Sun, the OECD and asylum seekers

The Sun quotes the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as saying that many migrants aren't fleeing war zones. Here's what else the OECD said.

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22 September 2015

Are only one in five asylum seekers Syrian?

The Mail claims that 1 in 5 asylum seekers have been Syrian. The Guardian says there is evidence that's changing as the situation develops. Both are right.

17 September 2015

Ask Full Fact: are asylum seekers mostly men?

Readers have asked us whether it's true that most refugees are male. Of those applying for asylum in the EU recently, more than half have been men aged over 18.

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10 September 2015

Ask Full Fact: Germany hasn't accepted 800,000 Syrian refugees

Germany will end up accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees, both from Syria and the wider world, but 800,000 Syrians accepted to date is way off.

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4 September 2015

The UK can't be forced to accept more refugees

The EU can't force Britain to take a "quota" of refugees from other EU countries. The UK can choose to opt in to any such EU plan.

3 September 2015

Has the UK only taken in 216 Syrian refugees?

A number of outlets are claiming that the UK has taken in so few Syrian refugees that you could fit them all on a tube train. This is wrong.

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20 August 2015

UK asylum support doesn't go as far as France

Comparisons are tricky, but it seems that the UK gives asylum seekers less cash support than many other European countries, adjusted for living costs.

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Fact checks

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Policy & Impact

About

Asylum seekers

Refugees in Lebanon and the UK

Have 5,000 jihadis come into the EU?

UK aid to Syria

The Sun, the OECD and asylum seekers

Are only one in five asylum seekers Syrian?

Ask Full Fact: are asylum seekers mostly men?

Ask Full Fact: Germany hasn't accepted 800,000 Syrian refugees

The UK can't be forced to accept more refugees

Has the UK only taken in 216 Syrian refugees?

UK asylum support doesn't go as far as France

Full Fact fights bad information