Immigration statistics: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many illegal migrants have been permanently housed in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Inverness, Stirling and Edinburgh in the last 3 years?

2. How many asylum seekers have been permanently housed in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Inverness, Stirling and Edinburgh in the last 3 years?

3. How many have gone unchecked/unvetted by Police Scotland in the last 3 years?

4. How much of Scottish taxpayer's money is being used to house, feed, maintain the lives of each individual asylum seeker and/or illegal immigrant?

5. Were there public consultations with the people of Scotland to ask our permission to house them here? If so, please provide dates, locations of these meetings, minutes of these meetings including the voting ratio results of the public poll at these meetings.

Response

It may be helpful to explain that under current constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom (UK), asylum and immigration are reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. This includes the provision of asylum accommodation and support to people seeking asylum who would otherwise be destitute while waiting for a decision on their asylum application. It also includes decisions relating to UK immigration policy, including the application of No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) conditions and other restrictions or conditions applied to people seeking asylum, visa holders and anyone who requires permission to enter or remain in the UK but does not have it. The Scottish Government has no control of these processes.

People who have entered the UK irregularly and have not made an asylum application would be undocumented and would be subject to immigration control, and under reserved immigration legislation and rules they would subject to NRPF.

In the UK, the term person seeking asylum, or asylum seeker, refers to someone who has lodged an application for international protection under the United Nations (UN) 1951 Refugee Convention or Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and is waiting for a decision from the UK Government. An asylum application is therefore a process to determine whether someone is recognised as a refugee. The UK has international legal obligations to recognise refugees who are present in the UK.

Asylum is the process by which someone applies to the UK Government to have their refugee status recognised.

1. How many illegal migrants have been permanently housed in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Inverness, Stirling and Edinburgh in the last 3 years?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

We do not hold any information on illegal immigrants that have been housed in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Inverness or Stirling in the past 3 years. People who require permission to enter or remain in the UK are restricted from accessing local authority housing or homeless services.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

2. How many asylum seekers have been permanently housed in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Inverness, Stirling and Edinburgh in the last 3 years?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. We do not hold information about the total number of people seeking asylum provided with accommodation by the UK Government over the past three years in Scotland or in the cities you have specified in your request.

This is a section 17(1) notice that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

The UK Government regularly publishes statistical data online which may be of interest in relation to your request. To note, many of the data tables report the number of people at the end of a quarter, not cumulative totals, and therefore the total number of people in the asylum system over a certain time period may not be able to be calculated. Table Asy_D11 includes the number of people in receipt of asylum accommodation and/or support and is available in the quarterly immigration system statistics data tables on the UK Government website: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.

You may also find information which has already been published under previous information requests, as part of statistical releases, or otherwise made available on the UK Government website.

Regional and local authority data, including a breakdown for Scotland, is available here: Regional and local authority data on immigration groups - GOV.UK.

3. How many have gone unchecked/unvetted by Police Scotland in the last 3 years?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The Scottish Government holds no information in relation to individuals known to have criminal convictions in their country of origin and also the nature of their crimes. No information is held with regards to recorded offences committed by those with no legal status since arriving in Scotland.

As such, I hereby provide you with formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

You may however find it useful to consult the UK Government website for published information which may be relevant to your request: Statistics on foreign national offenders and the immigration system - GOV.UK.

4. How much of Scottish taxpayer's money is being used to house, feed, maintain the lives of each individual asylum seeker and/or illegal immigrant?

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The Scottish Government does not hold information on how much taxpayers money is used for each individual asylum seeker/illegal migrant.

The taxpayer cost is likely to vary depending on a number of factors, including the individual needs and eligibility of the individual and any time spent in the UK asylum system. As explained above, people seeking asylum and undocumented migrants (people who require leave to enter or remain in the UK but do not have it) are subject to No Recourse to Public Funds, this means that they cannot access certain public funds as defined under the UK Immigration Rules. This includes restriction from accessing local authority housing, most mainstream benefits like Universal Credit and emergency crisis payments from the Scottish Welfare Fund.

People seeking asylum may be provided with asylum accommodation and/or financial support if they would otherwise be destitute while waiting for a decision on their asylum application from the UK Government. As provision of asylum accommodation and support is reserved, the Scottish Government does not hold information relating to the cost of this provision.

This is a section 17(1) notice that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

You may however find it useful to consult the following link which sets out the Scottish Governments spending and tax plans for the year ahead: Scottish Budget 2025 to 2026 - gov.scot.

5. Were there public consultations with the people of Scotland to ask our permission to house them here? If so, please provide dates, locations of these meetings, minutes of these meetings including the voting ratio results of the public poll at these meetings.

As explained, the UK has international legal obligations to recognise refugees who are in the UK. This is because the UK is a founding signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees. The 1951 Convention was the culmination of international cooperation to assemble a set of guidelines, laws and conventions aimed at protecting everyone’s basic human rights and the treatment of people forced to flee conflict and persecution, following significant displacement during the first and second world wars in Europe. More information about the 1951 Convention can be found on the UNHCR website: The 1951 Refugee Convention | UNHCR UK.

The UK operates an asylum application system to determine whether people who have presented to the UK Government to be recognised as a refugee meet the definition of a refugee as set out in the 1951 Convention or require protection under any other relevant legislation or conventions to which the UK is a signatory. People seeking asylum can apply to the Home Secretary for asylum accommodation and/or support if they would otherwise be destitute while waiting for a decision on their asylum application.

The UK Government is responsible for UK asylum policy, legislation and rules. The Scottish Government does not hold information about whether any public consultations were undertaken by UK Governments since the 1951 Refugee Convention was signed. This is a section 17(1) notice that the Scottish Government does not hold the information you have requested.

It may be helpful to note that the dispersal of people seeking asylum to accommodation across the UK was introduced under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. For over two decades Glasgow was the only Scottish local authority to participate in dispersal, however in 2022 the UK Government introduced full dispersal policy which presumed asylum accommodation could be procured in any local authority across the UK, rather than only in those local authorities which had voluntarily agreed to participate.

Additionally, as asylum and immigration are reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office, you may wish to contact the Home Office at foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk to find out whether there is further information which they would be able to provide in relation to your request.

You may also find information which has already been published under previous information requests, as part of statistical releases, or otherwise made available on the UK Government website: Home Office - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.