Americans, Swedes, and New Zealanders have been given free accommodation and taxpayer-funded benefits in Britain after claiming asylum, despite coming from some of the safest and wealthiest countries in the Western world.
New Home Office figures show that 245 migrants from the European Union, the United States, and other developed Western nations were living in state-funded accommodation as of March while their asylum claims were being processed.
The group included 75 Americans and almost 150 EU citizens, many housed in hotels and receiving a weekly allowance paid for by British taxpayers.
The figures come as the Labour government prepares to move asylum seekers out of hotels and into newly built or refurbished council housing. Earlier this year, analysis commissioned by the Conservative Party estimated that almost four in ten new homes built in Britain by 2030 could be needed to accommodate net migration.
Critics have questioned why asylum claims from countries such as Sweden, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States are being processed at all.
Home Office officials acknowledge that almost all such claims fail. Last year, just 3% of asylum applications from EU countries, the United States and other comparable nations were approved, with the vast majority rejected or withdrawn.
Yet applicants remain entitled to accommodation and financial support if they are deemed unable to support themselves while their cases are considered.
One American claimant who benefited from the system was Olabode Shoniregun, a university-educated man from Las Vegas who claimed asylum on the grounds that he was being persecuted in the United States because he was black, Jewish and a member of the Mormon Church.
His claim was eventually rejected, but only after he had spent months in taxpayer-funded accommodation.
Another case involved a Lithuanian man facing deportation after serving a six-year prison sentence for armed robbery in Britain. He sought asylum by claiming he would be at risk in Lithuania because of his “ethnic and genetic makeup.”
The figures, obtained by Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, show that Americans lodged 156 asylum applications last year, the highest number from any of the countries generally regarded as safe democracies.
They were followed by Poland with 88 applications, Romania with 68, Hungary with 41, and Lithuania with 26.
O’Brien said many voters would be astonished that Britain was spending public money accommodating asylum seekers from countries with functioning democratic institutions and strong human rights protections.
“These people are basically economic migrants shopping around,” he said.
“There is no way you can credibly claim that the government of New Zealand or Sweden is a threat to your life.”
The figures also emerge amid wider concerns about the asylum system. Government data released earlier this year showed that almost 135,000 asylum seekers entered the UK through legal visa routes between 2021 and 2025 before later claiming asylum.
The Home Office defended the current system, saying asylum claims must be assessed on an individual basis and that those who do not qualify for protection are refused.
A spokesman said the government had reduced the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels by 35% over the past year and cut overall asylum support costs by nearly £1 billion.
