More than one in three asylum claims in Britain are being made by illegal immigrations or people who have overstayed their visas.

Data supplied by the Home Office reveals that tens of thousands of people claimed asylum in Britain after being caught staying illegally in the country, suggesting widespread abuse of the UK’s asylum system.

A total of 36 per cent of asylum applications from 2004 to 2014 were by migrants who had already been resident in Britain, a total of 83,912 out of 231,100 applications.

According to The Times, figures also showed many of those migrants who claimed asylum after overstaying had a good chance of receiving it, with 19,200 successfully gaining asylum, or at least being given extra time to stay in Britain.

Alp Mehmet, Deputy Chairman of MigrationWatch UK, said: “What these figures show is that having arrived, then by hook or by crook, these people will seek any means possible to stay.

“These figures suggest that many of those claiming asylum are in fact economic migrants.”

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said: “It is deeply concerning that a third of all asylum applications have been made by illegal migrants and overstayers.

“The very principle of seeking asylum is that you feel persecuted at the time you arrive, not saying you feel persecuted after arriving illegally or for different reasons and then remaining in the country until you are apprehended.

“This is a significant clog in the immigration system, and we should ensure that this is not to the detriment of vulnerable people with a legitimate claim of asylum.

“It is one thing for the government to say it’s tough on illegal immigration — it’s another to actually take control of issues like these.”

Breitbart London reported in March how a British minister admitted the government is powerless to deport tens of thousands of illegal immigrants.

Richard Harrington said that Britain could not remove them from the country as they had burned their documents and refused to disclose where they had come from.

“Where would they be deported to, most of them?” he said.

“This deportation sounds easy, it sounds a common sense thing to do. But the truth is most of these illegal migrants have got no place to be deported to.”