By Dominic Casciani BBC News Online community affairs reporter

English Channel: Tougher immigration checks

Asylum applications have fallen by a third from April to June this year - showing the government is well on course to meet the prime minister's pledge to halve the number of applications by September.

In the latest figures released by the Home Office, total applications excluding dependents numbered 10,585 - 34% less than in the previous quarter.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said the expected fall was down to tighter asylum criteria and tougher immigration measures, including controls in France and Belgium.

But critics say the fall in applications may mask undeclared arrivals by people using smugglers to circumvent the system.

According to the figures, the number of applicants was less than half the level of the last three months of 2002 when the prime minister made his controversial pledge to slash in half the numbers claiming asylum in the UK.

The government's target for September was 4,450 applications.

In each of the three months to the end of June asylum applications ran at less than 3,700 - with May being the lowest rate for five years.

While asylum applications generally fell across the European Union, the fall in numbers arriving in the UK was more than twice the continental average.

'Very encouraging'

Home Secretary David Blunkett said the figures were very encouraging.

Top 10 applicant nationalities (Q2 2003) 900: Somalia 815: Zimbabwe 705: China 645: India 635: Iraq 625: Iran 585: Turkey 485: Afghanistan 375: Pakistan 300: DR Congo Hi-tech controls at Belgian port

"It is absolutely clear that the steps we took in the Nationality and Immigration Act have worked and there will be a dramatic fall in the number of people claiming asylum," he told the BBC.

Mr Blunkett said the figures would "put us firmly on track to meet the target to halve the number of claims in September compared with unacceptably high levels in October last year".

Four out of the top five nationalities of those seeking asylum come from countries with a record of conflict or human rights abuses.

Iraqi arrivals fall

The largest single fall by any group was a massive 70% drop in arrivals by Iraqis.

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Asylum seekers from Iraq have made up the largest nationality of arrivals to the UK for more than year, totalling some 15,000 in 2002. In the last three months applications fell to just 635.

The immigration service's removal of failed applicants has continued to rise with 4,280 people deported in the last quarter, up 300 on the first three months of the year.

But the number of applicants winning rejected cases on appeal has risen slightly to 21%.

The government has also increased the use of detention. Some 1,355 asylum seekers were in detention at the end of June, up almost 400 on March.

Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, said the government had manipulated the true number of arrivals to the UK through social security regulations and an increase in work permits.

WHO ARE ASYLUM SEEKERS? Key facts about the people coming to the UK At-a-glance

"Even with all of these manipulations in place, the figures do little more than follow an international trend, and we are still top of both the world and the EU asylum league," he said.

"The fundamental problems of the current system fairly clearly remain."

Maeve Sherlock, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: "An emphasis on numbers in recent months has caused the debate on asylum to lose sight of the root causes of why people are forced to flee their homes.

"Simply preventing people from entering the UK cannot be referred to as a success when some of those people may be in desperate need of our help."

In other figures released at the same time by the Home Office, it revealed that 115,895 people were granted the right to settle in the UK in 2002 - 8% up on 2001.

The government granted 120,000 work permits to people from overseas in 2002, about 10% more than in the previous year.

The number of persons granted British citizenship in the United Kingdom rose by 33% to 120,145 in 2002, the highest recorded annual figure, said the Home Office.

Three-quarters of the new citizens came from either Asian or African countries.