Over 860 migrants flood in every day
MORE than 860 immigrants are swelling the population of Britain every day as the number of new arrivals continues to climb.
The figure will add to fears that the country’s public services are being placed under an impossible strain as 316,000 people flock here each year – the majority from outside the EU.
But that total only includes legal immigrants. It takes no account of the number coming here illegally. The influx means that an additional 2.3 million immigrants have officially moved to Britain since Labour took power – more than the entire population of West Yorkshire. During the same period, 715,000 Britons have left.
The revelation came as the Government was accused of “fiddling the figures” after insisting that the proportion of migrants from outside the EU was just over half.
Critics said that the true figure strengthened the calls for an annual cap on immigration from outside Europe. Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green said: “It is clear there are huge pressures on public services because of the sheer scale of the rising population. Ministers are foolish to ignore this growing problem.”
The independent Statistics Commission yesterday backed a think tank’s argument that the real figure for immigration from outside Europe was more than two-thirds of the total because movements by Britons had been wrongly included in Government estimates.
Overall net migration in 2006, according to the Office for National Statistics, was 191,000 but that was because there was a net outflow of 126,000 Britons that year.
In contrast, there was a net inflow of foreign nationals looking to stay for more than a year of 316,000 – or 866 a day – enough to fill a city the size of Coventry. Since Labour took power in 1997, there has been a net inflow of 2,337,000 foreign migrants and a net outflow of 715,000 Britons.
The figures will add to concerns over the pressure migrants are having on public services and communities. A paper from the Cabinet Office strategy unit this week said new clusters of settled migrants could be developing in suburbs and may cause tensions with residents.
The Daily Express told last month how almost two million new homes will have to be built over the next two decades to cope with the influx.
The scale of the pressure on public services was also revealed in a major report from local councils. In the most comprehensive study to date, problems were highlighted in 15 key areas, including health, housing, crime and schools.
Earlier last year, immigration minister Liam Byrne even admitted that mass migration is “deeply unsettling” Britain and piling pressure on communities.
Mr Byrne and the Home Office faced further criticism yesterday after saying that foreign immigration from outside the EU was no more than 52 per cent of those arriving. That figure has been regularly used as evidence that any annual cap on migrants would not have a large effect.
The debate over annual limits centres on the fact that it would not affect EU citizens who have free movement between member states.
Think tank Migrationwatch UK has argued that the Government estimates include movements by Britons, and a truer reflection of the impact of foreign migration, without British movements, is 68 per cent.
The Statistics Commission has now backed that argument in a letter from chairman Professor David Rhind after Migrationwatch asked him to review the figures.
It focuses on the ONS figures which show that of the net 316,000 foreign immigrants in 2006, 215,000 – or 68 per cent – were from outside the EU.
A large proportion came from the New Commonwealth, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Migrationwatch chairman, Sir Andrew Green, said: “This is highly significant in practical terms. The Government has no control over who comes from EU states, but it could reduce the numbers from non-EU countries.”
But the Home Office rejected suggestions that its statistics were inaccurate.
Chief statistician David Blunt said: “The total immigration statistics published in November 2006 showed that 89,000 of the total net migration flow to the UK of 185,000 in 2005 was accounted for by other EU countries.
“More recent ONS publications for 2006 also show gross, rather than net, figures highlighting that only around one-fifth of total non-British migrants to the UK are from outside the EU and are coming to the UK for work-related reasons.”
Liam Byrne said: “The public want sweeping changes to our border security and that’s exactly what we’re delivering throughout 2008.”
