A record 38,7000 asylum seekers are given refuge in the UK - even more than during the crisis in the early 2000s

The number of asylum seekers winning refugee status has hit the highest level since records began nearly 40 years ago.

Official figures show 38,761 asylum claims were granted by the Home Office in the year to September – more than during the asylum crisis in the early 2000s.

Home Office caseworkers made just under 42,000 initial decisions on asylum claims in the year – the highest level in two decades.

Of those, 75 per cent led to the applicant being given asylum or another form of humanitarian protection.

A Home Office document said: ‘The number of people granted (38,761) is the highest since records began (in 1984) and higher than the previous peak in 2002 (when 33,460 people were granted and the grant rate was 34 per cent).’

The ‘grant rate’ is the proportion of asylum applications which lead to refugee status at the initial stage. Before the pandemic this was about a third of applications.

This rate has rocketed in the past year as the Government introduced schemes to clear a backlog of cases. Rishi Sunak announced in December last year that more than 92,000 cases in the backlog would be ‘abolished’ by the end of this year.

One of the results of this policy has been the surge in cases approved, including some nationalities which were made eligible for fast-tracking.

The number soared as civil servants rushed to meet the Prime Minister’s target, with 22,614 awarded from July to September. Previously, the number was between 4,000 and 6,000 per quarter.

The data showed the largest number of applications came from Afghans – more than 10,000 – of which 99 per cent were granted.

The successful asylum claims in the year included 982 Albanians, data revealed, for which the grant rate was 14 per cent – far higher than in other European countries. The rate was just 9 per cent in France, according to figures. In Germany, Greece, Belgium and Sweden it was zero. Since 2003, Albania has been designated a ‘safe state’ under UK law.

Tory MP Tom Hunt said: ‘It concerns me that we seem to be granting refugee status much more liberally than many other countries.’ The Home Office was approached for comment.