LONDON (Reuters) – The United Kingdom recorded a record 12-month net migration to the end of June 2022, with around 504,000 net inflows, compared with 173,000 in the previous year, according to data published on Thursday by the National Office of Migration. statistics (ONS).
In detail, the entries of long-term immigrants rose sharply to jump to around 1.1 million people against 628,000 the previous year. Above all, they increased significantly more than exits, which rose from 455,000 over the 12 months to the end of June 2021 to 560,000 this year.
Almost half of the people who left British territory during the year until the end of June 2022 are nationals of European Union countries (275,000).
Regarding entries into the territory, these statistics do not take into account the approximately 35,000 migrants who crossed the Channel illegally over the period concerned, specifies the ONS.
These “record levels of long-term immigration” have been fueled by a conjunction of “unprecedented” factors, observes Jay Lindop, director of the center dedicated to international migration at the ONS, quoted in a press release.
With the end of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, international student arrivals have started to rise again, while the new visa systems put in place in response to international geopolitical tensions have also fueled inflows (refugees war veterans, Afghan refugees and Hong Kong nationals holding British overseas passports).
Immigration concerns were one of the factors behind the UK’s vote to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum. Then-Prime Minister David Cameron was no therefore failed for several years to achieve an annual net migration target of less than 100,000.
The previous record for British net migration dates back to 2015 with just over 330,000 net entries.
The current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, is “fully determined” to bring down this migratory balance, said his spokesperson.
“We are considering all options to make the immigration policy work,” he said.
(Report Elizabeth Piper, Sachin Ravikumar and Farouq Suleiman; French version Myriam Rivet and Bertrand Boucey, edited by Blandine Hénault)