Migration Watch UK
April 25, 2010
There are now over a million illegal immigrants in Britain according to a new report out today from Migrationwatch.
The report examined the only two previous studies - one commissioned by the Home Office in 2005 and the other produced by the London School of Economics in 2009 for the Mayor of London. The report explains that the LSE study severely underestimates the number of people who have entered Britain illegally and those who have come on a visa but have overstayed. It concludes that their previous central estimate of 618,000 should be revised to 1.1 million.
Commenting Sir Andrew Green, Chairman of Migrationwatch UK said, "It is hard to understand why anyone should suggest that people who have cheated the system for ten years should be rewarded with British citizenship and full access to the welfare state. It seems that the law applies to Brits but not to immigrants. What is more, we are talking here about over a million people - a number which would eventually be doubled by relatives who would acquire a right to come here. It is hard to think of a more crazy suggestion for wasting billions of pounds of tax payers money when the government is already broke".