What are the most common nationalities of migrants arriving in the UK illegally?

Five nationalities together accounted for more than half the total number of migrants who were detected entering the UK illegally in 2024.

Afghan nationals were the most common group, making up 15% (6,339) of the 43,630 migrants who arrived in the country through illegal routes last year, Home Office figures show.

The next most common nationalities were Iranian (5,370 or 12%), Syrian (4,945 or 11%), Eritrean (3,920 or 9%) and Vietnamese (3,798 or 9%).

Some 1,457 of arrivals last year (3%) had no nationality recorded.

The top two nationalities in 2024, Afghan and Iranian, were also the most common in 2023, accounting for 17% and 14% of total arrivals in that year respectively.

The proportion of arrivals who were Vietnamese rose from 4% in 2023 to 9% in 2024, while the proportion from Syria increased from 7% to 11%.

By contrast, Turkish nationals accounted for 5% of arrivals last year, down from 9% in 2023.

The total number of illegal arrivals detected in the UK in 2024, 43,630, was up 19% from 36,699 in 2023.

The vast majority of migrants entering the country illegally last year made the journey by boat across the English Channel (84% of the total), with smaller numbers arriving by air (8%) and at UK ports (1%), while the remaining total (7%) were detected within 72 hours of their arrival.

The most common nationality of arrivals varied across the different categories.

Afghans accounted for the largest proportion of arrivals across the Channel in small boats (17% of the total where nationality was known), Iranians made up the largest group of air arrivals (24%), Albanians accounted for the largest group of port arrivals (20%) and Sudanese made up the largest group of people detected within 72 hours of arrival (23%).

Afghan nationals were the most common group among small boat arrivals in both 2024 (17%) and 2023 (19%), while Albanian was the most common nationality in this group in 2022 (28%) and Iranian was the most common in both 2021 (30%) and 2020 (28%).

Here are the top 20 most common nationalities among all migrants who were detected arriving illegally in the UK in 2024.

– Afghanistan 6,339 (14.5% of total)
– Iran 5,370 (12.3%)
– Syria 4,945 (11.3%)
– Eritrea 3,920 (9.0%)
– Vietnam 3,798 (8.7%)
– Sudan 3,526 (8.1%)
– Iraq 2,462 (5.6%)
– Turkey 2,180 (5.0%)
– Yemen 1,308 (3.0%)
– Kuwait 1,035 (2.4%)
– Albania 825 (1.9%)
– Somalia 780 (1.8%)
– Sri Lanka 704 (1.6%)
– Georgia 657 (1.5%)
– Ethiopia 628 (1.4%)
– India 518 (1.2%)
– Stateless 498 (1.1%)
– Egypt 399 (0.9%)
– Libya 387 (0.9%)
– South Sudan 323 (0.7%)

Note: 1,457 (3.3%) have no nationality currently recorded 1,457