Nearly half a million refugees and their kids could flock to Britain from the EU from 2020, a report claims today.
Migration Watch estimates 4.8 million asylum seekers will head to Europe “over a period of years”, with between 5 per cent and 10 per cent coming to the UK if they can.
Chairman Lord Deddington said: “The UK could well face a significant secondary flow of refugees from Europe in the coming years adding to the already huge strain being placed on housing and public services.
“While the UK has so far been largely shielded from the crisis in southern Europe, this potential flow can only add to the impact of migration which is already seriously affecting communities across the country.”
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The Refugee and Migrant Crisis in the EU report says that, according to Eurostat, a projected 968,000 migrants will have been granted asylum or humanitarian protection for 2015 and the first quarter of 2016.
According to leaked estimates from the German authorities, each person granted asylum is likely to be followed by between four and eight family members.
Migration Watch said that taking the lower figure of four would suggest the total inflow to Europe could amount to 4.8 million over a period of years - without taking account of any future arrivals who might successfully claim asylum.
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The report said that if 10 per cent of these refugees decided to move to Britain once they got EU citizenship, which its says can be claimed after around five years, then 480,000 people could arrive in the UK in the years following 2020.
EU Remain campaigners rubbished the report, which comes less than a week after stats showed net migration hit 333,000 in 2015.
Labour MP Emma Reynolds said: “The evidence shows the overwhelming majority of refugees will never get the right to come to Britain.
“There is only one thing we know for certain – leaving Europe will wreck our economy.”