Refugee facts and statistics

The right to claim asylum is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 14 states:

“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution”

The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol are the key legal documents that form the basis of international refugee law. The Refugee Convention defines a refugee as a person who:

“owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it.”

The Home Office does not publish data on the number of asylum claims lodged in Northern Ireland, however, it does publish data on the number of people receiving asylum support in Northern Ireland. Asylum support is available to asylum seekers who are destitute on arrival. In practice, most asylum seekers in the UK are destitute on arrival and so claim asylum support.^[1]  So, the statistics on asylum support are a good indicator of the number of people in the asylum system.

In December 2025, 2,608 people were in receipt of asylum support in Northern Ireland.[2]

A note on the statistics

Note that the actual number of asylum seekers in Northern Ireland is likely to be slightly higher than that cited above. This is because the Home Office statistics only record the people who are in receipt of asylum support. A small number of people are not eligible for asylum support and so are not recorded in these figures. For example this includes those who have own financial means and those who have reached the end of the asylum legal process.

[1] In December 2025, 100,625 in the UK were claiming asylum, while 107,003 people were in receipt of asylum support. Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026]. See Asylum summary tables, year ending December 2025 Asy_00a.

[2] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026]. See Asylum seekers in receipt of support detailed datasets, year ending December 2025 Asy_D09.

Until relatively recently almost all asylum seekers lived in Belfast, however asylum seekers now live in different towns and cities across Northern Ireland.

There are no people in receipt of asylum support living in Mid and East Antrim and Mid Ulster council areas.[1]

[2] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026]. See Asylum seekers in receipt of support by local authority detailed datasets, year ending December 2025 Asy_D11.

Asylum support

Asylum seekers who are destitute and unable to meet their essential living needs are eligible to apply for asylum support, which consists of basic accommodation and a weekly stipend. People must apply for, and meet the conditions of asylum support, in order to be granted this support: it is not automatic. Further, asylum support can be withdrawn if the person no longer meets eligibility criteria or at the end of the asylum process.[1]

Asylum support is comprised of two main elements:

Financial support

The asylum support financial rates are as follows:

The median weekly earnings for a someone in full-time work in Northern Ireland is £713. Most people seeking asylum cannot work, and are forced to live off just 6.9% of this to pay for their weekly essential living needs. Essential living needs include food, clothing, toiletries and public transport.

While mothers and young children receive a small weekly uplift, this pales in comparison to the cost of everyday items. Depending on the retailer, baby formula can cost around £15, whilst packets of baby nappies often cost more than £10, both items alone exceed the weekly asylum support uplift.

[1] See Home Office, ‘Conditions of support’ for guidance on discontinuation of asylum support.

[2] Asylum support rates are available here.

Asylum accommodation

Most asylum seekers are in asylum support accommodation. The Home Office contracts a private company, Mears Group, to provide this accommodation in Northern Ireland.

As of December 2025, 81 asylum seekers were living in initial (temporary) accommodation, 268 were living in contingency accommodation (hotels) and 2,247 were living in dispersal accommodation in Northern Ireland. Dispersal accommodation is units such as houses and flats located across Northern Ireland.

12 individuals are in receipt of subsistence only support, meaning they receive financial support only and accommodation is not included in the support they receive.[1]

10% of people seeking asylum are living in hotels in Northern Ireland.[2] The term ‘hotel’ denotes luxury, however this is far from the case. Buildings previously operating as hotels have been refitted and are essentially now blocks of accommodation with most amenities stripped out or cordoned off. Most adults are required to share rooms and face restrictions on their movement.

The policy intention of the Labour government is to end the use of hotels as asylum accommodation during this parliament.[3] The Law Centre supports such a policy objective in our calls for the use of hotel accommodation to cease. The use of hotels as asylum accommodation fosters the separation of people seeking asylum from host communities and stands contrary to principles of effective refugee integration.

[1] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026]. See Asylum seekers in receipt of support detailed datasets, year ending December 2025 Asy_D09.

[2] ibid

[3] Home Office, ‘Restoring control over the immigration system: white paper’ (HO, 2025) pg 41. Available at: Restoring Control over the Immigration System May 2025

To qualify for asylum, a person must demonstrate that they have a well-founded fear of persecution or is at risk of serious harm due to war, conflict, etc.[1]

People seeking asylum who are living in Northern Ireland come from over 75 countries. The top nationalities are: Somali (863), Syrian (245), Eritrean (228), Sudanese (134), Iraqi (120), Nigerian (117), Iranian (107), Palestinian (86), Jordanian (61) and Ethiopian (54).[2] These are countries experiencing war, conflict, humanitarian crises or human rights abuses.

Most people seeking sanctuary arrive under the guidance or control of a smuggler. This because there are no official safe routes to seek asylum in the UK. Migrant smugglers are not motivated by altruistic or humanitarian reasons, but financial gain through the exploitation of displaced peoples. For people whose lives are in the hands of smugglers, they are often moved from place to place without knowing where they are, or where their destination will be.

However, there are people that decide to seek asylum in the UK. Connections like social networks, the presence of family, shared history and languages are key determiners as to why some people arrive in the UK to seek sanctuary.[3]

[1] GOV.UK, ‘Claim asylum in the UK: Eligibility’ Available at: https://www.gov.uk/claim-asylum/eligibility

[2] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated: 26 February 2026]. See Asylum seekers in receipt of support detailed datasets, year ending December 2025 Data_ Asy_D09. This excludes those recorded as “Refugee” and “Other and Unknown” of whom there were 36 and 3 respectively in December 2025.

[3] Refugee Action, ‘Time to Lift the Ban, ‘Why this Parliament must lift the ban on work for people seeking asylum’ (RA, 2025) pg 3. Time to lift the ban: Why this parliament must lift the ban on work for people seeking asylum

While the number of people seeking asylum in Northern Ireland has increased since 2022, it is important to place figures within the context of global displacement.

Across the globe, 117.3 million people are forcibly displaced by unstable conditions in their home countries caused by disasters such as conflict, violence and human rights violations. Figures have almost doubled in a decade showing the growing scale of crises worldwide. In 2016, the number of forcibly displaced people was at 65 million.

While much of the world’s political and media spotlight is placed on people seeking sanctuary who cross international borders, the majority (62.6%) are internally displaced: meaning they are within the borders of their own country. Two thirds (66%) of forcibly displaced people flee to neighbouring countries and approximately three quarters (71%) are hosted in low to middle income nations.

See: UNHCR Refugee Data Finder.

By December 2025, 82,140 applications for asylum were made in the UK, relating to 100,625 individuals.[1] When compared with EU countries, the UK is below average for asylum applications per head of population, ranking 14^th in comparison to EU27 countries.

Northern Ireland hosts the fewest numbers of people seeking asylum in the UK.[2] Just 2.33% of all people seeking asylum in the UK live in Northern Ireland.[3]

[1] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026]. See Asylum and resettlement summary tables, year ending December 2025 Asy_01a.

[2] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026]. See Asylum seekers in receipt of support detailed datasets, year ending December 2025 Asy_D09.

[3] In December 2025, there were 107,003 people receiving asylum support in UK of which 2,608 people were living in Northern Ireland, i.e. 2.44%. Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026]. See Asylum seekers in receipt of support detailed datasets, year ending December 2025 Asy_D09.

The reasons people migrate to Northern Ireland are broad, with people seeking asylum constituting a small number of overall figures. From mid-2023 to mid-2024, 28,200 people came from elsewhere to live in Northern Ireland (including from the rest of the UK). NISRA data shows that in 2024; 34% of immigration to Northern Ireland was for work, 35% to join family, 14% for education, 10% to seek asylum and 7% for other/unknown reasons.

For the 2,608 people receiving asylum support in Northern Ireland, this represents approximately 0.1% of the overall population here. It also represents less than a quarter of the capacity of the SSE Arena in Belfast!

The Brexit ‘Leave’ campaign argued that leaving the European Union (EU) would allow for tighter restrictions to migration to the UK. In practice, the UK’s withdrawal from the EU has had the opposite effect as demonstrated by higher rates of net migration.

Further, the number of asylum applications has increased since across UK[1] and in Northern Ireland [see graph 1].[2]

This is in no small part due to policy changes as a result of Brexit. While the UK was a member of the EU, it was part of the Common European Asylum System and the Dublin III Regulation. In short, these systems are designed to prevent people seeking asylum from moving between EU countries. European countries have agreements that mean that people seeking protection must usually stay in the first European country they come to. Now that the UK is no longer part of EU, these agreements no longer apply. Further, the UK no longer has access to the information-sharing Eurodac database, which is the EU’s fingerprinting database.

A European Parliament paper explains:

“For the British government, the Dublin system was beneficial in that it supported the transfer of asylum-seekers back to other EU countries, as the majority of them had transited through the European continent on their way to the UK. This allowed for an overall reduction in the number of asylum applications made in the UK”.

While in theory, the UK can remove asylum seekers back to European countries, in practice, European countries have no obligation to admit asylum seekers into their countries from the UK.  The UK government has agreed a ‘one in, one out’ arrangement with France, in which 377 people have been returned to France to process their asylum claims.

Certainly, the number of small boat journeys across the English Channel have increased exponentially following Brexit. In 2018, 299 crossings were reported, while figures show that in 2025, 41,472 people have travelled to the UK on a small boat.[3] Sadly, in 2024, 73 people died crossing the English Channel, more than the previous six years combined. In 2025, 24 people have died making journeys by boat.

[1] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026]. See Asylum summary tables, year ending December 2025 Asy_01a.

[2] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026]. See Asylum seekers in receipt of support detailed datasets, year ending December 2025 Asy_D09.

[3] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated 26 February 2026].  See Illegal entry routes to the UK detailed dataset, year ending December 2025, IER_D01.

The UK government offers few viable safe and legal routes for people seeking international protection. In the absence of safe and legal routes, people fleeing war and humanitarian crisis are faced with an impossible decision to risk their lives to reach safety. Law Centre NI stands for a humane immigration system, which includes safe and legal routes into the UK where people seeking asylum can apply for asylum outside of the UK and do not have to make perilous journeys.

The closure of refugee family reunion in September 2025 has made this situation worse.

People seeking asylum generally do not have the right to work in the UK.

However, an asylum seeker who has waited for a decision from the Home Office for over 12 months, is over 18 and is the principal applicant on the asylum claim, can apply to the Home Office for the right to work.

If granted permission to work, they will only be permitted to work in certain occupations outlined on the Immigration Salary List. Asylum seekers are usually very keen to work and support themselves and their family however as our permission to work for asylum seekers guide shows, this process is far from straightforward.

For asylum seekers granted the right to work on or after 26 March 2026, the Appendix Skilled Occupations list will replace the Immigration Salary List. Asylum seekers will only take a job that is listed in Appendix Skilled Occupations and is assessed as RQF Level 6 or above (graduate-level roles).

Of the small number of asylum seekers who have succeeded in obtaining permission to work, most are employed in social care roles. This is a sector replete with issues such as poor working conditions, understaffing and low pay. People who have sought protection in the UK come with a range of qualifications and experience, a proportion of whom are highly qualified, but despite this often remain in lower paid occupations.

Law Centre NI believes that the Home Office should remove the barriers to work for asylum seekers. Such barriers restrict the potential of people seeking asylum to support themselves financially, contribute to our economy and have more autonomy over their lives. Further, enabling asylum seekers the right to work would relieve strain on public services. The Lift the Ban coalition uses National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) economic modelling to show that lifting restrictions on the right to work for asylum seekers could increase tax revenue by £1.3 billion and increase the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by £1.6 billion, annually.

People seeking asylum are not eligible for social housing, this includes NI Housing Executive and Housing Association properties. Instead, asylum seekers who are assessed as destitute are accommodated in Mears Group properties in Northern Ireland. Mears Group is a private company which the Home Office contracts to provide basic accommodation for people in the asylum support system. The asylum accommodation system is entirely separate to our social housing systems in Northern Ireland.

For those who have received a positive decision on their asylum applications and a grant of refugee status who are facing homelessness, they are eligible to apply for social housing. The NI Housing Executive’s Migrant Housing Myths document explains that all applicants for social housing are assessed using the point-based Housing Selection Scheme. Those eligible will be placed on the Common Waiting List to be allocated a property. The Housing Executive award points based on individual needs and housing situation. There is no specific points categories awarded to individuals who are refugees. The latest statistics show that there are 49,588 people on the Housing Executive’s waiting list for social housing.

You can read more about the rights of refugees in our Refugee Move-On Guide.

‘Safe and legal routes’ are channels whereby people are granted visas to come to or stay in the UK for humanitarian reasons. These channels are different from asylum routes where individuals usually have to resort to irregular means to gain entry.

It is only possible to claim asylum from within the UK. However, there is no ‘asylum visa’, meaning that people cannot obtain permission to come to the UK for the purpose of claiming asylum. This is why people often must resort to irregular or clandestine means such as using false travel documents, travelling by small boat, etc. The Refugee Convention protects a person from being prosecuted for irregular entry, provided they make their claim for asylum at the earliest opportunity.

People who come through ‘safe and legal’ routes are usually granted refugee status or other form of protection by the UK while they are abroad and prior to arrival. So, they arrive in the UK with status: they do not go through the UK asylum process.

Refugee resettlement is an example of a safe route to protection. The UN Refugee Agency (UNCHR) selects refugees for resettlement and transfers them to the UK with the agreement of the Home Office. Any offer of resettlement is contingent on security screening and provision of biometric information. Northern Ireland’s experience of refugee resettlement has been the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (see below).

The UK also operates several nationality-specific bespoke immigration routes. At present these apply to some Afghans, Ukrainians and people from Hong Kong. Not all these routes grant a person refugee status and the associated rights and entitlements specified in the 1951 Refugee Convention. For example, the UK Government does not refer to Ukrainians as ‘refugees’. Rather, it uses the term ‘guests’ or ‘evacuees’. The Law Centre uses the term refugees as per our understanding of international human rights law

This route was paused by the Home Office and applications for ‘Refugee Family Reunion’ closed on 4 September 2025. See our statement calling on the government to reinstate refugee family reunion here. The refugee family reunion route is paused indefinitely and is expected to reopen once the policy has undergone review and reform by the UK government.

Previously, some refugees arrived in the UK through refugee family reunion. If an asylum seeker is granted refugee status, their immediate family members may have been eligible to apply to come to the UK as refugees. Family reunion rights apply to a spouse, or partner and to any children under 18 years old if they formed a part of the family unit before the refugee fled their country.

The latest quarterly statistics show that 2,765 family members of refugees living in the UK have been granted entry to the UK through family reunion visas, over 60% of whom were children under 18.[1] This is a UK-wide statistic: we do not have any data on the number of refugees arriving in Northern Ireland through refugee family reunion.

[1] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated: 26 February 2026]. See table Family reunion visa grants detailed datasets, year ending December 2025 Fam_D01

Refugees can arrive through community sponsorship. This is a way for local communities, civil society organisations, charities and faith groups to come together to host a refugee family. As far as the Law Centre is aware, only three refugee families have ever arrived in Northern Ireland through Community Sponsorship.

Between 2015 – 2020, Northern Ireland welcomed 438 families comprising 1,814 individuals who arrived through the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.[1]

Under this Scheme, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) identified vulnerable people and referred them for resettlement to the UK Government and Home Office. The priority groups included refugees with medical needs, survivors of violence and torture, women and girls, children, adolescents or elderly or refugees with legal or physical protection needs or without local integration prospects.

The Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme closed in March 2021.[2] This means that people fleeing Syria now arrive through the usual asylum or family reunion process.

[1] Department for Communities, ‘Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme’ [last updated 20 February 2020].

[2] UNCHR, ‘The UK’s Syria Resettlement Programme: Looking Back, and Ahead’ [published 23 March 2021].

There are two different schemes that were designed to help people fleeing Afghanistan. In April 2021, the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) was established. This is for locally employed Afghan staff who supported British efforts in Afghanistan, for example interpreters and other personnel. The ARAP scheme has been closed to new applications since 1 July 2025.

In January 2022, the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) was established. The UK Government describes this scheme as prioritising Afghans who assisted the UK efforts in Afghanistan and ‘stood up’ for values such as democracy, women’s rights, freedom of speech and rule of law.  It also covers vulnerable people including women and girls at risk and members of minority at risk groups (including ethnic and religious minorities and LGBTQ+). There are three pathways under the ACRS:

1. Pathway 1: vulnerable and at-risk individuals who were evacuated to the UK, as well as those who were called forward for evacuation but were unable to board flights.
2. Pathway 2: vulnerable refugees who have fled Afghanistan and have been referred to the scheme by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
3. Pathway 3: at-risk individuals who supported the UK and international community effort in Afghanistan, as well as vulnerable people.

As of 1 July 2025, with ACRS scheme is closed to new referrals accepted for relocation to the UK.[1]

As of September 2025, 79 Afghan families comprising 346 individuals arrived Northern Ireland.[2] It should be noted that not all who arrived are still in Northern Ireland, however we do not have data for families who have since left NI.

[1] Home Office, ‘Guidance: Afghan citizens resettlement scheme’ [published 18 August 2021, last updated 1 July 2025].

[2] Update provided by Bryson from NI Refugee Resettlement Consortium via email on 20 October 2025.

[3] Home Office, ‘Guidance: Afghan citizens resettlement scheme’ [published 18 August 2021, last updated 1 July 2025].

[4] ‘Individuals brought to the UK under the ARAP or the ACRS Pathways 1 and 3 do not have protection status, and therefore are not eligible to sponsor family members under the refugee family reunion rules’. See: Home Office, ‘Family reunion: for individuals with protection status in the UK, Version 10.0’ (17 July 2023).

Prior to the war in Ukraine, the number of Ukrainians resident in Northern Ireland was extremely small. Following the outbreak of war, the UK Government announced a new visa for Ukrainians fleeing the war: the ‘Ukraine Scheme’ visa, which opened in March 2022. The Ukraine Scheme visa is free and the usual biometrics fee is waived.

Initially there were three routes in to the Ukraine Scheme: Homes For Ukraine Scheme, Ukraine Extension Scheme and Ukraine Family Scheme. The Family Scheme, used by Ukrainians to bring their family members to the UK, was closed on 19 February 2024.[1] The Extension Scheme, used by Ukrainians who were already living in the UK with a temporary visa when war broke out, closed for new applications on 16 May 2024, with an exception for babies born in the UK to Ukrainian parents.[2]

There is now only one route into the Ukraine Scheme visa: Homes For Ukraine. Ukrainians who are able to find a Northern Ireland-based resident[3] who can act as a ‘host’ are eligible to apply to the Homes for Ukraine (Sponsorship) route.

The large majority of people received visas through the Sponsorship route, with smaller numbers arriving through the (now defunct) Family route and the (now defunct) Ukraine Extension Scheme. As of 31 December 2025, 3,248 individuals have been issued visas in Northern Ireland under the Sponsorship route.[4]

Northern Ireland is also hosting 11 Ukrainians within the asylum system.[5] Overall, Northern Ireland hosts approximately 1.6% of Ukrainians who have fled to the UK following the war.[6]

[1] Gov.UK, ‘Guidance: Apply for a Ukraine Family Scheme visa’ [published 4 March 2022, last updated 28 August 2025].

[2] Babies born in the UK to Ukraine Scheme visa holders can apply for status through the Extension Scheme. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-stay-in-the-uk-under-the-ukraine-extension-scheme [published 26 November 2024, last updated 5 March 2026].

[3] Hosts must be a British or Irish citizen, or be ‘settled in the UK’ (which means having the right to live in the UK permanently) and be able to provide accommodation for a minimum of 6 months. Gov. UK, ‘Guidance: Apply for a visa under the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme’ [published 18 March 2022, last updated 5 November 2025]

[4] Gov.uk, ‘Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme: Visa data by country, upper and lower tier local authority – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)’ [last updated 21 August 2025].

[5] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated: 26 February 2026]. See Asylum seekers in receipt of support detailed datasets, year ending December 2025, Data – Asy_D09.

[6] This figure does not include small numbers of Ukrainians in the asylum system in NI. Across the UK, 209,043 Ukraine Scheme visas have been issued. Gov.uk, ‘Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme: Visa data by country, upper and lower tier local authority – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)’ [last updated 26 February 2026].

[7] Home Office, ‘Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme: Visa data by age and sex of applicant’, [last updated 26 February 2026]. See ‘Notes’ tab.

The British National (Overseas) Hong Kong visa scheme commenced on 31 January 2021.[1] This scheme was devised following the Chinese government’s imposition of the National Security Law in Hong Kong in July 2020, which the UK views to be in breach of international law. Applicants can apply for a BN(O) visa from inside or outside the UK.

Unlike all the other visas referred to in this paper, the BN(O) visa is not free. Applicants must also pay the Immigration Health Surcharge and biometric fee. In addition to paying these fees upfront, applicants must be able to evidence enough money to pay for accommodation and support costs for them and their family for at least 6 months.

Again, unlike other visas, the BN(O) visa does not afford access to public funds. This means that visa-holders cannot claim means-tested social security benefits such as Universal Credit.

During the first year, visa grants peaked at 96,418. Numbers have fallen every year since. Across the UK, 235,805 BN(O) visas (97.2% of all applications) have been granted since the scheme has opened.[2]

There is no published data relating to BN(O) visas and Northern Ireland. There are two individuals from Hong Kong receiving asylum support in Northern Ireland.[3]

[1]  Home Office, ‘Policy paper British National (Overseas)‘ [last updated 13 October 2023].

[2] There have been a total of 185,507 grants of out of country BN(O) visa applications made between 2021 and end of December 2025, of which 8,927 have been granted in the year ending December 2025. 172,000 people (rounded) have arrived in the UK on the scheme since it began, 10,800 of whom have arrived in the year up to December 2025.

A total of 50,296 in-country extension applications have been granted between 31 January 2021 and the end of December 2025 with 7,089 in the year ending December 2025.

Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated: 26 February 2026]. See Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes summary tables, year ending December 2025, BNO_01.

[3] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables’ [last updated: 26 February 2026]. See  Asylum seekers in receipt of support detailed datasets, year ending December 2025 Data – Asy_D09.

While some immigration applications are free for people seeking protection, some categories of people are required to pay fees.

[1] Home Office, ‘Immigration and nationality fees’ 4 October 2023’ [last updated 1 July 2025].

[2] Gov.UK, ‘Life in the UK Test’.

[3] Gov.UK, ‘Pay for UK healthcare as part of your immigration application’.

• Refugee Council: Top facts from the latest statistics on refugees and people seeking asylum
• UNHCR: Refugee Data Finder
• Northern Ireland Housing Executive: Migrant Housing Myths
• European Parliamentary Research Service: EU-UK cooperation on migration and asylum

Asylum seeker: a person fleeing persecution, war or serious harm who is seeking international protection and is waiting for a decision on their asylum claim

Refugee: a person who has received a positive decision on their asylum claim. Note that some people who claim asylum are granted other forms of protection other than refugee status.

Destitution: the Home Office use a destitution test to assess whether an asylum seeker is eligible for support. It includes proving that the person seeking asylum does not have adequate accommodation or means of obtaining adequate accommodation, or they do not have the means to meet their essential living needs.