EXPOSED: Graphs reveal reason illegal migration to the UK is unlikely to fall any time soon

There are a few ways of assessing migrant numbers.

However, the traditional method is analysing the number of asylum seekers who have managed to cross into the European Union.

In the five years from August 2020 to July 2025, a total of 3,949,630 asylum applications have been received by 27 European Union countries from non-EU migrants.

Last year, the number fell, but it remains at levels which suggest the problem of the European Union’s borders has still not been resolved.

The problem of vast numbers of migrants entering the European Union, mostly from African and Arab countries, really started taking off after German Chancellor Angela Merkel took office in 2005.

This became an issue particularly in 2015 when she unilaterally declared the equivalent of "All Welcome Here" without any notice to, or approval from, other member countries, including the United Kingdom.

The numbers that poured into the European Union and into Germany following her statement had taken the German Chancellor by surprise.

Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) was one response, and other countries, particularly the UK, ended up picking up a significant part of the cost.

The EUTF fund was discretionary, and the UK paid into it.

It did so through various mechanisms and using the funding of different departments.

Traditionally, the migrant problem has been measured by the number of asylum applications received, but this only tells part of the story. For the first time, it can now be shown how many illegal migrants were detected within the European Union’s borders.

In order to exclude those who are found at borders or in their immediate proximity, it is important to qualify the data.

One of the charts, which shows more than 2.3 million illegal migrants were detected in the European Union, explains the numbers who have successfully evaded any border controls and visa regulations and who were found to be illegally present "in-country".

This is of particular interest to Britons, as it indicates how many more may be seeking to potentially make their way to the UK.

In the four years from 2021 to 2024, authorities in European Union countries made more than 2.3 million (2,333,495) detections of illegal migrants found to be present in their countries, excluding those apprehended at borders.

Before 2021, this information was not collected, and it has only been collected annually since then.

This second set of data is significant as it gives some idea of the extent of the illegal migrant problem in the European Union which does not "appear on the radar".

These are migrants who have chosen to avoid contact with the authorities.

The 2.3 million is only the number for those illegal migrants who have been caught.

It raises questions about the ability of authorities to locate these individuals.

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