Fact Check: GB News segment links asylum seekers to rising crime (July 2025)
🗣️ The Claim
In July 2025, a GB News segment claimed that asylum seekers in the UK were driving a national crime wave, implying a direct link between rising crime rates and recent asylum arrivals.
📍 The Context
- Concerns about asylum seekers and crime have long been a recurring talking point in far-right and anti-immigration rhetoric.
- GB News commentators framed asylum arrivals as a threat to public safety, without citing supporting evidence.
- The claim plays into wider narratives aimed at stoking fear around immigration and small boat crossings.
🔎 The Facts
- Official Crime Data
- ONS statistics show no evidence of a disproportionate link between asylum seekers and crime rates in the UK.
- Most crime trends, including violent and sexual offences, are explained by social and economic factors, not immigration status.
- Migration Observatory Findings
- The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory has repeatedly concluded that there is no clear link between immigration and rising crime.
- In some cases, areas with higher immigration have lower crime rates due to demographic and economic factors.
- Home Office & Police Data
- Neither the Home Office nor major police forces report asylum seekers as a distinct driver of crime.
- When crimes involve non-UK nationals, they are still a small minority compared with offences committed by UK citizens.
✅ Verdict: False
The claim that asylum seekers are driving a crime wave is not supported by evidence. Official data and independent research show no disproportionate criminality among asylum seekers. The GB News framing is a misleading narrative, not a fact.