The UK government is facing criticism over record rates of immigration as well as successful asylum applications, since leaving the European Union, ending free movement and introducing a new points-based system.
One million foreign nationals were allowed to live in the UK last year for the first time in history, according to news government statisticsincluding workers, students and family members.
Home Office figures released on Thursday suggest just over a million people were allowed to live in the UK in the twelve months to March 2022, a total of 1.6 million on visas and permits granted, of which just over 600,000 were visitor visas. .
Asylum seekers at the height of 30
There were 55,146 asylum applications (principal applicants only) in the UK in the year ending March 2022, 56% more than in the year ending March 2020. Data released also showed that the UK asylum backlog continued to grow, reaching almost 110,000 people.
Figures taken from Oxford University Migration Observatory showed that 76% of asylum applications from young men aged 18 to 29, a group often singled out in policy discussions, were also positive in the year ending March 2022.
Of the top ten nationalities seeking asylum, half have a grant rate above 80% (Iran 88%, Eritrea 97%, Syria 98%, Afghanistan 91% and Sudan 95%).
This is higher than at the height of the European migration crisis (36,546 in the year ending June 2016) and it is the highest number of applications for almost two decades (since 2003) .
The proportion of asylum seekers having received a positive decision on their application reached its highest level in 30 years in March.
Immigration was a hot topic throughout the Brexit vote in 2016, with “Take back control” a prominent slogan with voters. In 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government ended free movement with the EU on a manifest who pledged to “restore confidence in the immigration system”.
Alp Mehmet, president of Migration Watch UK, told The Epoch Times via email that “illegal immigration through the English Channel is out of control and the current rate is three times that of 2021 for the same period, if it continues. , could mean around 85,000 by the end of the year.”
He added that he believed the points-based system, introduced at the start of 2021, had lowered qualification and pay levels, removed caps and dropped the requirement to seek local recruitment first.
“It has effectively facilitated the recruitment, without limits, of 80% of the world. This is why immigration has increased and will continue to increase,” Mehmet said.
Few European citizens
In April of this year, fueled by record number of migrants Crossing the English Channel on small boats, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with Rwanda to set up a new procedure for transferring asylum seekers to the East African country. Fifty people who entered the UK illegally have become the first group to be informed of the government’s intention to send them there.
The Migration Observatory reported that the post-Brexit immigration system did not attract substantial numbers of EU citizens in the first quarter of 2022.
Only seven per cent of skilled work visa applications came from EU citizens, with a “particularly low” share for health and social care roles at one per cent, he said.
“So far, the post-Brexit system has not attracted many European citizens. The new system is much more restrictive than free movement and many low-wage positions are ineligible. But we are also seeing low demand for skilled work visas, suggesting that applicants may be deterred by the cost and bureaucracy these visas entail,” said Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory of the United States. University of Oxford, in a statement.
