London: Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday announced plans to crack down on illegal immigration and tighten Britain’s borders as new official figures showed a significant rise in the number of long-term migrants.
Net migration to Britain surged to roughly 318,000 in 2014, up from 209,000 the year before, the Office for National Statistics said. The figure represents the estimated number of people entering the country on a long-term basis minus the number departing.
Immigration has become one of the most divisive political issues in Britain, and increasing numbers of Britons argue that uncontrolled migration has a negative effect on the country — from employment to social infrastructure such as housing and health services.
In his first speech on immigration since he won a second term in the general election, Cameron said police will be given powers to seize the earnings of illegal migrant workers. Businesses will be barred from recruiting abroad without advertising in Britain.
“A strong country isn’t one that pulls up the drawbridge,” he said. “It is one that controls immigration ... Because if you have uncontrolled immigration, you have uncontrolled pressure on public services. That raises basic issues of fairness.”
The data showed that 641,000 immigrants came to Britain last year, up by more than 100,000 since 2013. Of those, just more than half were people from within the EU.
Cameron has long insisted he can cut net migration to the “tens of thousands.”
“It’s disappointing that we haven’t made more progress, but I take these figures as a clear instruction to deliver and to deliver faster,” Cameron said on Thursday.
“I and many others believe it is right for us to reduce the incentives for people who want to come here .... Changes to welfare to cut EU migration will be an absolute requirement in my renegotiation,” Cameron said.
Merkel sets tone for EU summit
Cameron was speaking before flying to an EU Eastern Partnership Summit in Latvia, his first foreign trip since his re-election on May 7. He wants to use the summit to tentatively start renegotiating Britain’s ties with the bloc ahead of a planned in-out EU membership referendum.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned the EU’s eastern partners on Thursday not to expect too much of the bloc while warning Russia to mend its ways over Ukraine if it wanted to rejoin the international community.
“The Eastern Partnership is not aimed against anyone, especially not against Russia,” Merkel told the German parliament before leaving for the two-day summit in the Latvian capital Riga.
“We will not accept thinking in terms of spheres of influence in the Europe of the 21st century,” she said, adding that the six states did not face an “either-or” choice between Russia and the EU.
EU leaders will reaffirm their commitment to developing ties with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, according to a draft communique.