Government's policy criticised as immigration figures released

8:49am Friday 3rd November 2006

CRITICS launched a new assault on the Government's immigration policy last night after figures showed more than 1,500 immigrants arrived in Britain every day last year.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data revealed 565,000 people came to live here for at least a year during the course of 2005.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people a day left the UK to live abroad - an estimated 380,000 - half of whom were British citizens.

It means the country's net population rose by 500 a day, or 185,000 during the year.

While the 565,000 estimate was 17,000 fewer than 2004's figure, the ONS report said: "This still continued the overall trend of high immigration into the UK that began in the late 1990s."

The number of immigrants moving to the North-East and North Yorkshire will not be known until the spring. However, many have moved to the region to take up posts in catering, farming and the service industries.

And last month Wizz Air launched a route from eastern Europe in response to the growing number of migrant workers.

Durham Tees Valley Airport announced that the Polish carrier would operate three flights a week to Warsaw, starting in July.

The biggest group of migrants were people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who accounted for two-thirds of net immigration. However, the largest single nationality coming to Britain was Poles.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, which campaigns against mass immigration, said: "These figures confirm that we are facing the largest wave of immigration in our history."

Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green said: "Even though more than a thousand people a day are leaving Blair's Britain, the net immigration figure for 2005 is again huge.

"The Government needs to tell us whether it plans to have around 200,000 extra people coming to Britain every year, or whether the recent figures are just a symptom of lack of control."

The number of people arriving for at least a year from the eight former Soviet Bloc countries that joined the EU in May 2004 - including Poland - increased by 50 per cent to 80,000 last year, the ONS said.

Figures showed the net immigration figure for the eight states was 64,000.

However, these figures did not appear to tally with previous Home Office data on eastern European arrivals, which said 205,000 came here to work last year.

An estimated 49,000 Poles arrived in the UK last year intending to stay for at least a year - almost three times the 2004 figure.

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said: "The Government believes that migrant workers make a vital contribution to the UK economy, with workers from the accession countries having given our economy a £4m boost.

"In addition, what the ONS data doesn't show is that many of these migrants are coming to the UK to take posts in important industries benefiting the UK."