Fact-checking Boris Johnson's claim about refugees
- Published
Boris Johnson was asked at Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions about the UK's policy on admitting Ukrainian refugees.
He said: "This government has a proud, proud record. We've done more to resettle vulnerable people than any other European country since 2015."
Mr Johnson has made this claim before, which the government says applies to "resettled refugees".
He is right about this one category of refugees, but the overall picture is very different, as some other European countries have taken in far more refugees than the UK since 2015.
Resettled refugees
Resettled refugees are people who are admitted to the UK from another country where they had initially sought refuge. This would apply, for example, to someone who had fled the war in Syria and was now living in a camp in Jordan.
The UK operates three resettlement schemes:
The UK Resettlement Scheme for vulnerable refugees, including survivors of violence and torture, women, children and people with medical needs. The government works with the UN's refugee agency, which assesses refugees for resettlement
The Community Sponsorship Scheme enables community groups to directly welcome and support a resettled family into their local community
The Mandate Resettlement Scheme resettles refugees with a close family member in the UK who is willing to accommodate them
Between 2015 and 2020 (the years for which comparable data exists), the UK admitted about 24,700 resettled refugees - the majority of them Syrians.
This was higher than France, which resettled about 16,300 people, and Germany with about 14,500.
Overall refugee figures
Resettlement schemes are just one part of the asylum system.
The majority of those who flee their home country, and cannot safely return to it, seek refuge by applying for asylum in another country.
When you factor in the number of people who were granted asylum since 2015, then the picture changes dramatically.
It is clear that looking at the overall numbers of refugees allowed to stay, several European countries are way ahead of the UK.
If you add up the number of resettled refugees and those who were granted asylum, the UK gave refuge to just over 92,000 people from around the world from 2015 to 2020.
Germany, by contrast, gave refuge to more than one million people.
France, Sweden, Italy and Spain all outperformed the UK over the same period.
And if you look at the figures in proportion to a country's overall population, the UK has provided refuge to 121 people per 100,000.
On that measure, 20 other European countries have taken in more refugees than the UK.
Sweden, with 1,619 refugees per 100,000 people leads in Europe, followed by Germany with 1,274, Austria with 1,134 and Switzerland with 955.
