More than 150,000 non-EU immigrants will still come to Britain every year after Brexit — that’s the size of Slough
While the EU exit could limit arrivals from the continent, a study reveals far little is being done to curb the influx from the rest of the world
More than 150,000 immigrants a year from outside of Europe - the population of Slough - will still come to the UK after Brexit unless ministers act.
While our EU exit could help limit arrivals from the continent, a new study reveals far too little is being done to curb the influx from the rest of the world.
Using entry figures over the last 13 years, Migration Watch UK has calculated there will still be a net annual influx of non-EU migrants of 155,000 a year through the five years of this Parliament until at least 2022.
Their figure is also a minimum and could soar higher if more want to come and when over-stayers are also counted.
It also makes a mockery of the Tories long-running election pledge to reduce the net figure to “manageable levels” of 100,000 a year.
The campaign group’s boss Lord Green dubbed the projection “a wake-up call” to focus ministers’ minds on how Brexit is far from the only solution to controlling migration.
He added: “We now say that, unless determined action is taken, it is extremely unlikely that non-EU migration will fall significantly in the next five years.
“Brexit should help considerably but further action on non-EU migration is essential.”
By far the biggest group of non-EU immigrants are students.
The study reveals that of the 415,000 visas granted each year, about 85,000 will still have leave to remain in Britain five years.
And an estimated 35,000 will also overstay their visas.
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Migration Watch UK want tightened criteria for visas and more enforcement to make sure illegals actually leave.
The warning comes ahead of the latest quarterly figures on immigration from the Office of National Statistics tomorrow.
The most recent figures revealed net non-EU immigration through out 2016 stood at 176,000.
And the number of net arrivals from within Europe was 133,000.
Once Brits’ arrivals and departures were also factored in, the total net figure of extra people arriving in the country was 248,000.