A new study has revealed that Britain hosts more illegal immigrants than any other European country.
According to research led by Oxford University experts, there are around 745,000 illegal immigrants in the UK, accounting for 1 in 100 of the population.
That’s more than double the 300,000 in France and even ahead of the upper estimate of 700,000 in Germany, which has the second-largest illegal immigrant population in Europe.
The figures were revealed as the Home Office said 973 migrants crossed the English Channel in 17 small boats on Saturday, the largest daily figure this year.
The total number of people crossing in 2024 is 26,612, up five per cent on 2023 at the same stage, but 21 per cent behind the record high of 33,611 at this point in 2022.
French authorities confirmed that four people died while trying to cross the English Channel on Saturday; these included a two-year-old boy who was “crushed to death” on the boat.
Senior Conservatives have demanded Sir Keir Starmer rethink Labor’s approach after the Prime Minister scrapped plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda while they are processed.
The government is under intense pressure to tackle the people-smuggling gangs responsible for the crisis and tackle crime committed by migrants in Britain. The Telegraph revealed last week that one in 50 Albanians in Britain was in prison.
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly said: “We need to deter people from coming here illegally and root them out of our economy while they’re here.”
Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, who has called for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), said: “This is the highest number of people crossing the Channel in a single day for years. Sir Keir’s dangerous so-called ‘plan’ on small boats ‘ The security of our country is in danger.”
Some 745,000 people are estimated to have arrived in the UK illegally, including foreign nationals with overstayed visas, missing asylum seekers and some migrants crossing the Channel on small boats.
Labor has vowed to crack down on people-smuggling gangs by setting up a Border Security Command to work with European and G7 partners and giving UK law enforcement and intelligence agencies new counter-terrorism-style powers.
Sir Keir has rejected calls to leave the ECHR to help tackle the crisis, and at the weekend French and European sources told The Telegraph that the UK would only consider returning Channel migrants to France if it remained at the European Court of Human Rights. He said he could get the deal. Rights.
Illegal immigrants to fill Leeds city size
A Home Office source said: “Far from softening the response, this new Government has stepped up returns of those living here illegally and set up a new Border Security Command to relentlessly pursue criminal smuggling gangs who make millions from small boat crossings, undermining our border security. and putting lives at risk, we are taking control of the situation after the chaos brought about by the last Government’s approach.
“Tory leadership candidates are sticking with the Rwanda partnership, which has spent £700 million to send four volunteers. Maybe it’s time for them to learn from their mistakes instead of doubling down.”
The research, published on Monday and compiled by 18 institutions including Oxford University’s Compas centre, estimated the number of illegal immigrants in the UK at between 594,000 and 745,000, compared with Germany (up to 700,000), France (300,000) and Italy. (458,000). and Spain (469,000).
The upper estimates from Germany and the UK account for a quarter of all illegal immigrants in the 12 EU countries covered by the study.
The Home Office does not publish data on the number of illegal immigrants in the UK, other than those crossing the Channel. But most of them are not included in the Oxford study because they claimed asylum on arrival.
The 745,000 illegal immigrants, equivalent to a city the size of Leeds, come on top of a total backlog of 224,742 asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their claims or appealing their refusal.
Experts have suggested that the size of the illegal immigrant population in the UK may reflect its larger black economy than in other countries, the Government’s reluctance to grant amnesty unlike other countries, and “hostile environment” policies that encourage immigrants to stay away from public services.
Although the Home Office does not publish data, internal estimates leaked by the Home Office five years ago suggested that at least 150,000 foreign nationals enter the UK illegally every year and then disappear into the underground economy.
Oxford researchers said they did not believe overall numbers had increased in recent years but the Government should follow the example of countries such as the US and Italy, which aim to assess and record the size of their illegal immigrant populations.
The research will form the basis of a new public database that will bring together and evaluate the latest estimates of how many illegal immigrants live in European countries and North America.
Denis Kierans, senior researcher at Oxford’s Compas migration centre, said it was important for policymakers to know the scale because “these are people living and working in the UK but operating outside the mainstream tax and benefit system. This means that the state is deprived of its contributions to the public purse, while they risk exploitation and poverty on the margins of society.”