One in 100 people in the U.K. are illegal immigrants and the country is home to more illegal migrants than any other European nation, a new Oxford study has found. The Telegraph has more.
There are up to 745,000 illegal migrants in the U.K., accounting for one in 100 of the population, according to the research led by Oxford University experts.
This is more than double the 300,000 in France and ahead even of the upper estimate of 700,000 in Germany, which has the second-largest population of illegal migrants in Europe.
The figures were disclosed as the Home Office said 973 migrants in 17 small boats crossed the English Channel on Saturday, the biggest daily number this year.
The total number of people to cross in 2024 is 26,612, up 5% on 2023 at the same stage, but 21% behind the record 33,611 at this point in 2022.
Guy Dampier says the true number based on Pew Research figures could be as high as 1.5 million (one in 50 people) and that the main problem is the pull factors that draw people to our shores:
Britain is unusual in being an island, so getting here ought to be harder than it is to get to other countries in Europe. We can see that in the way illegal immigrants often have to smuggle themselves here in vans or over the Channel in small boats. This is more difficult than crossing most land borders.
These things taken together mean that the pull factors for illegal immigrants to come to Britain must be higher than elsewhere in Europe. The ubiquity of the English language is one element. The existence of numerous diaspora groups here is another because, as Paul Collier has shown, immigrants tend to go to places where there are existing communities for them to join. The main reasons why we are so popular however must be related to our permissive job market and the failure of the authorities to guard our borders.
The French have long blamed our job market for attracting the illegal immigrants who transit through France. The most infamous example are apps like Deliveroo, who allowed workers to share their profiles with others with minimal checks on documentation. That made it easy for illegal immigrants to work here. Although the last Government brought in changes, it remains easy for illegal immigrants to work in the black economy.
Some of the rest of the blame has to fall on the failure of successive Governments to get a grip on immigration. That the Home Office fails to estimate the number of illegals and lets academics do their job instead is indicative of an unwillingness to grapple with the issue.
He might also have mentioned the U.K.’s extraordinary approval rate of asylum applications: 75% in 2023, compared to France’s 31%.
This morning it’s reported that an Albanian criminal who sneaked back into Britain after being deported has won the right to stay under the the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The Telegraph reports .
Ardit Binaj, 32, was freed six months into a two-and-a-half year jail sentence for burglary and deported as part of a prisoner transfer agreement with Albania.
However, within months he re-entered Britain in breach of the deportation order to be with his Lithuanian girlfriend, who had leave to remain in the U.K. under the Government’s EU settlement scheme.
They subsequently had a baby and married, enabling him to lodge his successful claim that an attempt by the Home Office to deport him again would breach his Article 8 ECHR rights to a family life.
The case, revealed in court documents seen by the Telegraph, will revive demands for Britain to quit or seek reform of the ECHR.
Last week, Boris Johnson said a referendum should be held on membership of the convention, which critics say prevents Britain from having full control of its immigration policy and blocks its sovereign right to deport criminals or migrants who have illegally entered the U.K.
But what are the chances that Surrender Starmer will do anything to get to grips with the problem? After 14 years of the Tories spectacularly failing to address it – and most of the Tory leadership candidates still hedging on whether it’s necessary to leave the ECHR – it’s very hard to see a ‘progressive’ Labour Government actually doing what’s necessary. Britain’s borders look set to remain porous for a long time yet.
Stop Press: A surge in immigration has driven the fastest increase in the U.K. population on record, with the population growing by 1% in 2023 to 68.3m, the Telegraph reports. This was driven entirely by immigration as more people died across the UK than were born over the year, meaning the population would have shrunk without the influx.
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