Asylum claims in the UK reach highest level in over a DECADE

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Claims for asylum in the UK reached their highest level in over a decade

Between January and June this year, 36,465 people applied for asylum in Britain, a 41 percent increase on the same period in 2015, which had nearly 26,000 claims. 

Nearly one in ten of the would-be refugees were youngsters with unaccompanied children accounting for 3,472 of the total - a 54 percent annual increase

The last time Britain had such a high number of applications was in 2004, when 39,746 people sought asylum. 

Over a million people fleeing wars and conflict in the Middle East, Africa and Asia reached the EU last year in the continent's biggest migration crisis since World War Two.

Iranians were the biggest group with just under 5,000 claims followed by 3,199 Iraqis, 2,992 from Pakistan, 2,790 Eritreans and 2,690 Afghans. There were also 2,563 from Syria. 

The Office for National Statistics said nearly 3,500 refugees were resettled in the first half of the year. 

Across the EU, Germany received 665,000 asylum seeker claims in the first half of 2016, by far the greatest number, followed by Sweden with 149,000 and Hungary on 131,000.

Britain had the eighth highest amount of asylum applications in the EU, according to ONS data.