Net Migration Hit Almost One Million Last Year as ONS Revises Figures
WILL JONES
Net migration hit a record high of nearly one million in 2023, 170,000 more than previously thought, in an extraordinary indictment of the Tories’ post-Brexit record on ‘cutting immigration’. The Telegraph has more.
The number of people entering the U.K. minus those leaving reached 906,000 in the year ending June 2023, according to updated estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This has been revised upwards from a previous estimate of 740,000.
The net migration record was formerly thought to be 764,000 for the year ending December 2022. This estimate has also been revised and now stands at 872,000.
However, the most recent figures show that net migration is falling and is down by 20% to 728,000 for the year ending June 2024. This is the fourth highest net migration total on record.
The revised estimates come as separate Home Office figures showed government spending on asylum in the UK stood at a record £5.38 billion in 2023-24, up 36% from £3.95 billion in 2022-23.
The recent decline covers the year before the election when the Tories cracked down on migration, with measures including bans on foreign workers and students bringing dependants, increases in the skilled worker salary threshold from £26,200 to £38,700 and curbing shortage occupation visa schemes.
The ONS said the total for the year to June 2023 had been revised upwards by 166,000 from the initial estimate of 740,000 because of more data becoming available.
It reported that better analysis of the number of refugees from Ukraine and improved information on the migration behaviour of people arriving from outside the EU had also impacted estimates. …
The ONS said that while remaining high by “historic standards”, net migration is now “beginning to fall” in the wake of the measures introduced at the beginning of this year.
Non-EU nationals accounted for 86% – just over one million – of the 1.2 million people who entered the country in the year to June 2024. EU nationals made up 10% or 116,000, and returning Britons accounted for 5%.
Of the 479,000 people who left the U.K. in the year ending June 2024, around 44% – 211,000 – were EU nationals and 39% or 189,000 were from non-EU countries. Some 16%, or 79,000 were Britons.
Worth reading in full.
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Asylum hotels could bring Britain’s welfare state to its knees
Time is running out for Labour to get a grip on the cost of housing Channel crossers
GUY DAMPIER
The Government has admitted that they have now opened more hotels for asylum seekers than they have closed. In the four months since the general election, the number of hotels in use has jumped from 213 to 220. While seven hotels were emptied, another 14 have been brought into use.
Despite Labour’s election promise to close the hotels, there is no sign that they will be able to manage this anytime soon. That means taxpayers are continuing to support over 30,000 asylum seekers in hotels, at a cost of £4.2 billion a year.
Similarly, the Government has had to row back on their intention to end the use of large sites for asylum accommodation, with RAF Wethersfield in Essex due to expand from 540 beds to at least 800.
There are two big problems, both the result of Government policy. The first is that their plan to “smash the gangs” isn’t working. The numbers crossing the English Channel have actually increased since Labour took power, despite a series of arrests, most recently during a pan-European operation targeting a gang which smuggled at least 750 Syrians to Britain.
That’s to be commended – but that 750 only makes up 0.5 per cent of the over 147,000 people who have illegally entered Britain via “small boats” since 2018. Nor is there much clarity over the size of the gangs. Is conducting 20 arrests a major part of the smuggling gangs being taken out of action or is it only a small part? We don’t know.
While there is broad agreement that the gangs who control the Channel are largely Kurdish, the Government hasn’t set out who is running them or how many smugglers are involved. Without these basic details, the only metric we have to measure success and failure is the number of illegal immigrants arriving here – which is only increasing.
The second problem is the government’s rolling back of the Illegal Migration Act, which had meant that asylum seekers arriving illegally after March 7 2023 wouldn’t have their cases processed. That has been reversed but it suddenly created a big backlog of cases to be heard. What’s more, the high risk countries like Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea – which have asylum grant rates around 90 per cent – have been prioritised, so the remaining backlog is increasingly made up of more difficult cases, which take longer.
More asylum decisions also mean more appeals to come, even as the number of asylum lawyers available has fallen. The backlog is likely to remain high for the future, so even if the “smash the gangs” strategy does work, the Government will need to keep many of the hotels open while the asylum cases drag on.
Even if the Government was able to end the flow of new asylum seekers, or to process the asylum backlog faster, the grant rate of around 60 per cent means that asylum seekers will just be shifted from the Home Office to local authorities. The taxpayer will still be on the hook for the bill.
Combined with local government buying up homes to house Ukrainian and Afghan refugees who came through the legal routes, it means that in increasing parts of our housing market, ordinary people are now competing against their own Government to find accommodation.
The continued housing of asylum seekers also poses a risk of creating further disorder. The riot in Knowsley was sparked by an asylum seeker harassing an underage girl. The August riots were based on the false belief that the Southport killer was an asylum seeker, but built on widespread anger over the failure to stop the boats and a series of well-reported crimes involving asylum seekers.
Relocating 300 male asylum seekers to pleasant areas like Altrincham, which is close to several girls’ schools, appears to be an unnecessary risk. The growing concern is that the obligations related to asylum in Britain are negatively impacting the British populace. Why should farmers face additional taxes to generate a mere £500 million when the expenses for asylum accommodations are significantly higher?
Britain is struggling to manage the financial burden of not being able to secure its borders. If the influx of individuals arriving by small boats remains high or increases, the asylum system could undermine the financial stability of the British welfare state.
Relocating 300 male asylum seekers to pleasant areas like Altrincham, which is close to several girls’ schools, appears to be an unnecessary risk. The growing concern is that the obligations related to asylum in Britain are negatively impacting the British populace. Why should farmers face additional taxes to generate a mere £500 million when the expenses for asylum accommodations are significantly higher?Britain is struggling to manage the financial burden of not being able to secure its borders. If the influx of individuals arriving by small boats remains high or increases, the asylum system could undermine the financial stability of the British welfare state.
This article (Asylum hotels could bring Britain’s welfare state to its knees) was created and published by The Telegraph and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Guy Dampier
Featured image: Wikimedia Commons
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