A briefing from the Joint Public Issues Team
Who is a refugee?
The definition of a refugee according to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention is:
“A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
A person seeking asylum is someone who has left their country of origin and formally applied for protection in another country. They are awaiting the outcome of their application.
A migrant is a person who has moved to another country for any other reason, such as to find work or join family abroad.
The global picture
As of the end of June 2025, there were an estimated 117.3 million people around the world who had been forced to flee their homes. Among them are 36.4 million refugees. 71% of the world’s refugees and people in need of international protection are hosted in low- and middle-income countries. Children account for 30% of the world’s population but 40% of all forcibly displaced people.
People flee their homes for many reasons – conflict, violence, persecution and fear of human rights violations – and factors such as poverty and climate change may leave them with fewer options.
Refugees and asylum seekers in the UK
The numbers of people applying for asylum in the UK has increased markedly since 2020, peaking in 2024. In 2025, there were 82,100 applications for asylum in the UK, compared to an average of 27,500 a year between 2011 and 2020. In terms of the number of asylum applications per head of population, the UK is below average among European countries.
People from Pakistan, Eritrea, Iran and Afghanistan were the most common nationalities claiming asylum in the UK in 2025, together representing 33% of people claiming asylum. Of people who arrived on small boats, six in 10 were from just five nationalities – Eritrean, Afghan, Iranian, Sudanese and Somali. These are all countries where people face violence, conflict, persecution and human rights violations.
Unless you qualify for one of the very limited resettlement schemes (e,g. such as the Ukrainian or Afghan schemes), there are no safe and legal routes through which you can claim asylum in the UK.
People claiming asylum experience a significant wait for their claims to be processed, though this has reduced from its peak in 2023 – at the end of 2025, there were 48,700 cases awaiting an initial decision. During this time, people are provided with accommodation and an allowance of just £7 a day, and not permitted to work. If they are judged to have no recourse to public funds, they may well find themselves destitute.
The increased use of hotels to house people seeking asylum meant that large numbers of people were placed in communities without preparation, support or integration, and liable to be relocated at short notice. These hotels (and the people within them) have become the focus of violence and racist hatred, with an impact on the mental health of refugees and people seeking asylum.
45% of initial decisions on people’s asylum claims made in the year to September 2025 were grants of protection, meaning they have been awarded refugee status or humanitarian protection. More people are granted protection on appeal.
Once people are granted asylum they have just 42 days to find a new home. The number of households who became homeless and received help from a local authority after leaving asylum accommodation increased by 250% in 2024.
Political context
In 2025, the UK government set out an aim to “restore order and control to the immigration system” and reduce net migration. Changes to legal migration rules would “reward those who contribute and play by the rules”. Reforms to the asylum system were announced that were designed to deter new arrivals, by:
- making refugee status temporary, subject to review every 30 months
- making people wait 20 years before they can apply for permanent settlement in the UK
- removing access to some benefits
- shifting away from the use of hotels as asylum accommodation, instead deploying large sites, often former military camps
- suspending the family reunion scheme that enabled those granted refugee status to apply for their close family members to join them in the UK.
Migration has increasingly become a politically contentious issue. Although asylum seekers and refugees represented less than 12% of immigrants to the UK in 2025, they are often at the sharp end of public policy and political rhetoric. In communities where people already feel economically squeezed and politically abandoned, narratives around asylum seekers being given hotel rooms, or perceptions of threat, have in some cases led to increased tensions, and protests broke out in some communities in the summers of 2024 and 2025. Political rhetoric which plays into these tensions and stokes racism is increasingly apparent.
How have churches responded?
The story of the people of God is full of experiences of journeying and of exile. Perhaps because of this, a deep ethic develops through the Bible about how travellers and foreigners are to be treated. Repeated instructions to ‘love the stranger’, respect the rights of foreigners, ensure the fair treatment of those at risk of oppression, and the reminder that ‘you were once strangers in Egypt’, mean that commandments to protect migrants are the most-repeated injunctions in the Bible. For Christians, added to this imperative is the Gospel understanding that by welcoming the stranger, we welcome Christ himself (Matthew 25:35).
God’s people are a wandering people, and churches in Britain are made up of many people who have chosen or been forced to leave their place of birth for various reasons. Our churches have been changed and are richer for that. Christians who are fleeing persecution or people who simply experience love expressed by local churches are growing and enriching local congregations.
Specifically looking at refugees and asylum seekers, some churches have been able to respond to asylum seekers arriving in their communities, opening premises for food and hospitality. Some churches have become Churches of Sanctuary, publicly committing to be welcoming places of safety for all and proud to offer sanctuary to people fleeing violence and persecution. Some individuals and churches have participated in community sponsorship schemes or hosting schemes, offering a home to people on resettlement schemes or with no recourse to public funds. Some people and churches join to make communities places of welcome, advice and support for people seeking asylum or resettling as refugees. And refugees and people seeking sanctuary help to enrich and shape their communities in return, with some coming to Christian faith for the first time or finding a new Christian home with local churches.
Speaking out
The Church brings its voice to public policy debates around asylum and migration, calling for a fairer and more compassionate approach, and defending the right of people to seek safety from war and persecution in the UK.
Through JPIT, it has enabled advocacy on issues including the Rwanda scheme, for asylum seekers to have the right to work, the need to create new safe routes for people to come to the UK, and most recently, to restore the refugee family reunion scheme.
Last updated: March 2026