Immigration in NI: How many people are here seeking asylum?

A horrific attack in North Belfast on 8 June has resulted in a charge of attempted murder for a Sudanese national. The incident received international attention – as did the protests and racist disorder that followed in the subsequent days.

The alleged attacker’s refugee status has also led to discussions about immigration – and asylum in particular. But what is the picture in Northern Ireland? How many people here are seeking asylum? And how has that changed over the past decade or so?

• The latest official figures state that there are 5,019 people under various resettlement schemes. This represents around 0.26% of Northern Ireland’s population – lower than elsewhere in the UK.
• Over half of these have arrived via dedicated humanitarian programmes aimed at those from Ukraine and Afghanisation.
• The remaining 2,379 of these are here under standard asylum support and restrictions. People seeking asylum generally do not have the right to work and cannot access most mainstream benefits. Instead, they may be eligible for accommodation and a weekly support payment of £49.18 per person (or £9.95 if their accommodation provides food) while their claim is being considered.
• Belfast has a much higher concentration of asylum seekers than any other council area in Northern Ireland.
• The number of people receiving asylum support rose significantly between 2021 and 2023 and has declined since, while arrivals through Ukrainian and Afghan schemes have increased.

• Headline figures

FactCheckNI published an article on this issue last year, focused mainly on Belfast. Details from that article are still being shared on social media, with some people pointing out that the figures are now out of date. In response, we have decided to provide an updated analysis.

The latest data on immigration to the UK was published in May and covers the 12-month period until the end of March (note that, throughout this article, all annual data is correct at 31 March, in order to line up with these most recent figures).

According to the most recent figures, a total of 5,019 people are living here under protected immigration. This equates to around 0.26% of the population – roughly one in every 400 people.

Overall, this is a much lower proportion of the population than seen in the other constituent nations of the UK:

Figure 1 – source: UK Government

This is also a lower proportion of the population than in each of the nine regions of England, where these percentages range from 0.36% in Yorkshire and the Humber to 0.56% in London.

• Understanding the figures

A BBC Verify/BBC Northern Ireland article published this week notes that:

“Home Office figures show there were 2,379 asylum seekers receiving asylum support in Northern Ireland as of March 2026. These individuals would need to have claimed asylum in Northern Ireland to receive support there.”

This figure of 2,379 is significantly lower than the overall total of 5,019 people discussed above. The difference between these figures reflects the fact that the larger number includes all protected immigration, not everyone who has come to Northern Ireland seeking protection is currently receiving support, and over half of people have arrived through dedicated humanitarian schemes Homes for Ukraine and the Afghan Resettlement Scheme.

(There are different strands to the UK’s protected immigration programme. In particular, the dedicated Ukrainian and Afghan programmes are aimed specifically at people from those countries fleeing either the Russian invasion or Taliban oppression.)

• Homes for Ukraine

Homes for Ukraine allowed people living in the UK to sponsor individuals or families fleeing the Russian invasion in that country and put them up in their own house here. These people can apply for visas and the various entitlements to find work and access services that come with that. However, while these visas can be extended, individuals are not entitled to indefinite leave to remain (ILR) based on the belief that Ukraine will ultimately be a safe place to return.

• Afghan Resettlement

The Afghan Resettlement Scheme comprises a couple of different initiatives aimed at moving people out of Afghanisation and out of the reach of the Taliban, including vulnerable groups such as people who worked with the UK Government or otherwise supported its efforts in those countries. People successfully applying to these schemes received immediate ILR as well as the right to work and access services, including social housing. Local authorities were given central government funding to cover resettlement costs, the first year of children’s education, English language support, and the first year of healthcare.

• What are asylum seekers normally entitled to?

In general, and outside of extraordinary schemes such as those described above, asylum seekers have no right to work and no recourse to public funds – meaning they cannot access many regular services in benefits.

Instead of this, they are given specific asylum support, which includes housing if required (although asylum seekers have no say in where they are housed), and a weekly allowance of £49.18 per person, which falls to £9.95 per week if they are housed somewhere that provides meals.

More details on these schemes can be found in the guide we published last summer on who migrates to the UK and what they are entitled to.

• Supported asylum figures

Northern Ireland has relatively few people from these two non-supported schemes. So, when considering only supported categories, the total number of people living here under protected immigration categories (2,379) is much closer to the UK average as a percentage of population.

Supported asylum seekers amount to 0.12% of the local population – around one in every 800 people. This is about the same as Scotland (also 0.12%), slightly higher than Wales (0.11%) and below England (0.15%). The UK average is 0.14%.

• Belfast and elsewhere

UK asylum statistics break down asylum figures by local authority area, so we can look at each of NI’s 11 councils and compare the asylum data for each.

Belfast has far more asylum seekers than other parts of Northern Ireland, both numerically and as a proportion of its population.

Figure 2 – source: UK Government

Overall, when considering all the 361 local authority areas (LEAs) in the UK which have figures, Belfast has the 44th highest number of people here under protected immigration as a percentage of the local population (0.56%), putting it in the second decile. All other parts of NI are well below the UK average:

Figure 3 – source: UK Government

The difference between Belfast and other parts of NI broadly speaking grows larger when considering only supported asylum seekers. They make up 0.45% of the population of the city (1,607 people in total) which is the 10th highest such proportion across all UK LEAs.

Of NI’s other council areas:

• Antrim and Newtownabbey (0.14%), Causeway Coast and Glens (0.14%) and Derry City and Strabane (0.15%) all have around the UK average proportion of supported asylum seekers.
• Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon (0.04%) and Newry Mourne and Down (0.02%) are well below average.
• The other five council areas have either no supported asylum seekers (Mid and East Antrim; Mid Ulster) or numbers so low (Ards and North Down; Fermanagh and Omagh; Lisburn and Castlereagh – all in single figures) that they effectively represent zero percent of the population.

• NI: changes over time

The following data is taken from various UK Government tables. However, it is important to note that the figures from 2023 onwards are presented in a different format than the historic data.

Specifically, there may have been some people who migrated to NI under the Afghan Resettlement programmes prior to 2023, but these are not captured in this data. There is also a tiny (and likely negligible) risk that some individuals may have arrived by 31 March 2022 via Homes for Ukraine – although that initiative only opened a couple of weeks before that date so these numbers would be small regardless.

Figure 4 – source: UK Government ongoing and historic data

The total number of people included in these protection-related categories has increased every year since 2016. However, the patterns of increase have evolved in that time.

The total number of supported asylum seekers peaked in 2023 and has been falling since. This has been more than offset by increases in the Ukrainian and Afghan programmes.

This pattern can be seen in the following chart, which shows how each of the three strands combines in total:

Figure 5 – source: UK Government ongoing and historic data

• And more

There are many other potential ways to analyse asylum data. This article aims to help people understand the current asylum picture in Northern Ireland while still being accessible (and not too long).

If you see any further information that could be relevant to a guide like this – or see any claims you would like us to check – please get in touch.