London: Net migration to the UK rose to the highest on record in the year ended June 2015, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics.
Immigration to the UK totalled 636,000 in the period — up 62,000 compared to a year earlier — driven by an upswing in arrivals of European Union citizens. Emigration amounted to 300,000, down 20,000, leaving a net figure of 336,000.
The ONS data showed a rising number of people are fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa to reach the EU. Asylum applications increased 19 per cent to about 29,000 in the year through September, with the largest number of applications coming from Eritrea, Sudan, Iran and Syria.
The figures pose a challenge for David Cameron, with businesses seeking easier access to skilled foreign workers and the UK prime minister wanting to appear strong on immigration before a planned referendum on EU membership. One of his proposals is to restrict benefits to migrants from other countries in the bloc — a measure European Commission chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas says amounts to “direct discrimination.”
Simon Walker, director general of the Institute of Directors, said on Thursday that there is too much “bluster” surrounding immigration statistics. Citing an IOD survey, he said that 90 per cent of UK companies that hire international workers also invest in training British staff.
Businesses find Britain’s immigration system “restrictive, burdensome and crude,” he said. “Anti-immigration rhetoric sends a depressing message about Britain’s openness to the world, puts off investment, damages our international standing and encourages foreign students and high-skilled workers to head to our global competitors.”
Cameron has never come close to meeting a pledge, made before he first won office in 2010 and repeated in his election campaign this year, to cut net annual immigration below 100,000. The EU’s free-movement rules mean Cameron only has control over refugees from outside the bloc, which has led to crackdowns on skilled refugees from outside Europe.
