Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the official statistics published by the Home Office Irregular migration to the UK, year ending June 2023, published on 24 August, which found that "small boat arrivals account for less than half (46 per cent) of the total number of people claiming asylum in the UK in the year ending June 2023", by what means the other 54 per cent of people seeking asylum arrived in the UK.

The Home Office publishes data on small boat arrivals in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK’ release. Data on asylum applications from small boat arrivals on these applications can be found in table Irr_D02 of the ‘irregular migration detailed datasets’.

Other entry routes to the UK may include:

• arrival on a legal visa route, but where an individual subsequently finds that they are unable to return to their country of origin and have reason to claim asylum in the UK
• arrival through the common travel area without valid permission to enter
• arrival through other irregular routes including lorries or shipping containers
• arrival through regular routes using fraudulent documents