Pakistan, June 13 -- In 2024, the largest group of asylum seekers hailed from Pakistan, followed by Afghanistan. In previous years, they came mainly from Syria and Iran.

Britain's Labour government pledged to cut a backlog in asylum applications and end "the costly use of hotels to house asylum seekers", saving £1 billion annually, finance minister Rachel Reeves announced Wednesday.

"Funding that I have provided today. will cut the asylum backlog, hear more appeal cases and return people who have no rights to be here, saving the taxpayer a billion pounds a year," Reeves said in her Spending Review that sets out Treasury expenditure and savings over the next few years.

The number of UK asylum seekers has risen sharply in recent yea...