IMMIGRANTS

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Immigrants are being turned into British citizens at a rate of one every three minutes. Official statistics showed that 203,705 UK citizenships were handed to foreigners last year. The figure is 58% up on 2008 and the highest number since records began almost half a century ago. The number of newcomers from outside the EU granted the right to settle in the UK rose by 40% to 214,000 during the 12 months to the end of March. The official figures also showed that 503,000 immigrants arrived to settle in Britain during the 12 months to September 2009. The reduction, seen as the result of the economic downturn, was 9% down on the 555,000 who arrived in the previous year.

Immigration Minister Damian Green said, “These figures illustrate the scale of the immigration challenge facing the new Government. It is our duty to control immigration for the benefit of the UK and that is what I am determined to do. I believe that immigration has been far too high in recent years, which is why we will reduce net migration to the levels of the 1990s, to tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands. The public will see us tackle this issue head-on by introducing a wide range of measures including a limit on work permits, actions on marriage and an effective system of regulating the students who come here.”

A total of 361,000 people quit Britain during the same period, making net immigration 142,000, fewer than the 160,000 a year earlier but still enough to add another million to the population within seven years. Mr Green welcomed the drop in immigration last year, but added, “What is significant is that grants of settlement, the right to remain in this country, and grants of British citizenship have gone up hugely. It shows the long-term effect of the fact that the immigration system was out of control for so long under the previous Government. You would expect immigration to fall during a recession but the long-term population growth of this country is still going up very fast.” (Source: Daily Express, May/10)

A report from the London School of Economics has revealed the true costs of immigration into the UK and how it impacts on council tax payers. The report entitled ‘Population Mobility and Service Provision’ is a damning indictment of the present lunatic immigration system. The report states that immigrants are costing council tax payers at least £200 million a year. Costs for personal translators for immigrants are costing council tax payers at least a £1,000 per year per immigrant.

Council tax payers are also paying millions of pounds per year in ’destitution payments’ to illegal immigrants who have just arrived in the country and who are unable to claim benefits because of government rules that require them to follow the legal asylum process. The report details that schooling for the children of the UK is suffering and impacting adversely on the education of British children, that unbearable strain is being put on the housing and health systems, that social cohesion is being damaged by the influx of immigrants into the UK, that the council housing systems are in total crisis and that council taxes will have to rise vastly in coming years to cover the costs of the immigration crisis.

The report is based on official government figures as regards the estimates of numbers of immigrants entering the UK. When the Labour government said only 30,000 Eastern European immigrants would enter the country the real figure they later revealed was nearer 300,000. The actual numbers of immigrants in this report does not include the estimated 2-3 million illegal immigrants also in the country. The full report can be downloaded here (pdf) (Source: BNP, Feb/07)

Hundreds of asylum seekers are escaping deportation because of incompetence by the Government's immigration department. The removal of many of the 400,000 bogus refugees living in the UK are being halted because staff lose their passports and travel documents. Without the documents, there is no way of sending failed asylum seekers home. Countries are only obliged to take bogus claimants if the UK has proof of their nationality.

It forces the cancellation of their flights home at the last minute, even though it has cost £11,000 to round them up and detain them prior to deportation. They have to be either put back into detention centres while the documents are found, or set free. The blunders are costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds. Of 1,591 people brought to the centre in a single month, there were 450 last-minute failures.

In 95 cases the reasons were recorded as documentation problems, such as no ticket, no travel document, wrong name on ticket, wrong destination or removal directions sent in error. In a further 139 cases, staff did not even bother to record the reason for the deportation being halted. Many of these are believed to involve lost passports or other paperwork. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Aug/06)

More than 50,000 Eastern European migrants living in Britain are exploiting a loophole in the law to claim UK child benefit for children they have left behind. Migrant workers from new EU member states including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania, are signing up in droves for the cash, funded by British taxpayers.

In Poland, parents do not have an automatic right to state benefits for their children and even those payments which are available are strictly means-tested and very few people qualify. But under EU rules, Polish and other Eastern European parents working in Britain can leave their children at home and still qualify for UK money, £907.40 a year for a single child and £608.40 for each additional one.

At the current rate, even if they claim for only one child, the Polish applications alone will already have cost the taxpayer £45million this year. To successfully claim, the migrants must be registered to work in Britain. British Customs officials then check with authorities in their home countries to confirm they have children to support. In Poland, state agencies have been swamped by these checks from Britain. Requests for proof are arriving at a rate of more than 1,000 a week. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Aug/06)

At least 600,000 eastern Europeans have flooded into Britain, almost 25 times the Government's own prediction. And more than 40,000 of the migrants are managing to claim benefits worth tens of millions of pounds, including tax credits worth £5,200 a year to a young family. Home Office figures revealed almost 450,000 migrants from the former Eastern Bloc have registered to work here since the EU's controversial expansion in May 2004.

The 447,000 total does not even include partners, children or self-employed workers. The Home Office had predicted between 5,000 and 13,000 a year. The actual figure is 23 times higher. The influx shows no sign of slowing. There were almost 50,000 new arrivals in April, May and June2006. In 2005, 179,000 foreigners were given permanent settlement to live in the UK, an increase of 29%.

It takes the total number of overseas nationals granted permission to spend the rest of their lives here, and apply for a British passport, to more than one million since Labour came to power. The main beneficiaries were migrants from the Asian sub-continent, including India and Pakistan (83,740), and Africa (54,000). This has been the case every year. The main reasons are successful asylum claims, employment and joining family members.

In 2004, the UK was one of only three Governments not to restrict movement to nationals of the EU's eight new members, including Poland. Ministers said they would receive only limited benefits, but figures revealed payments are being made to a staggering 42,620 of those who have registered to work, almost one in ten. These include 27,280 child benefit payments, worth £17.45 a week for a first child and £11.70 for any others. The total bill, based on each claimant having an average two children, could be as much as £41million.

Tax credits, worth £1,320 a year for a single man on the minimum wage, and family tax credits, worth up to £5,000 for a migrant with a child, are being paid to 14,009 people. It would give a minimum bill of around £18million. The eastern Europeans are also in receipt of income support, Jobseekers' Allowance, pension credit and even 110 council houses. Others are staying in bed and breakfast accomodation, at taxpayers' expense.

The number in receipt of benefits has increased five-fold in the past year. During the first year after the former Eastern Bloc workers were allowed in, only 7,000 were receiving state handouts. One of the main reasons is that, after working in the UK for 12 months, a Government-imposed block on some benefits is lifted. Migrants are allowed to claim tax credits from day one, but more are now applying. The Home Office insists they are 'making few demands on our welfare system'.

The 447,000 figure for eastern Europeans includes only those who have applied to join the Home Office's worker registration scheme. Around 425,000 have been approved, though the rest are free to stay here and work anyway. The register does not include the self-employed. For example, only 835 childminders, 190 plumbers and 195 plasterers have signed-up. This is fewer than can be found in many London boroughs.

Migrationwatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said, "There is clearly a continuing massive flow of migrants from Eastern Europe. The case for placing restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians is now unanswerable." CBI director-general Richard Lambert said, "The UK has benefited greatly from the hard work of migrants from new accession countries. But it is only right that the UK takes the time to reflect on the earlier experiences and debates how and when to welcome the next phase of EU accession countries." (Source: Mail on Sunday, Aug/06)