Immigration hard work for Britain

Immigration has moved to the heart of the political agenda in Britain after the Government announced that 427,000 people from eastern Europe had successfully applied to work in Britain in the past two years.

The Home Office admitted the real figure is about 600,000 when the self-employed are included.

The numbers dwarf the 13,000 a year predicted by ministers before the eight former Soviet bloc joined the European Union in 2004.

Ministers stressed the positive benefits to the economy from the influx of new workers, 62 per cent of whom are from Poland.

But the statistics fuelled the intense political debate over the Government's policy on immigration.

Some Labour MPs backed Conservative calls for curbs on the right of people from Romania and Bulgaria to work in Britain after their countries join the EU, which is due to happen in January.

Prime Minister Tony Blair will have to resolve differences in his Cabinet over whether the "open door" policy towards the eight former Communist states should be extended to workers in Romania and Bulgaria.

This week's figures could strengthen the hand of ministers wanting to limit their right to work in Britain, who are led by John Reid, the Home Secretary.

He wants to deny the Tories the political space to exploit the issue in the run-up to the next general election.

But the Foreign Office is worried that curbs could damage the Government's pro-European credentials - and Blair's aspirations of bringing Turkey into the EU club.

Yesterday's figures showed that 264,560 Poles have been accepted on the Government's worker registration scheme.

The next largest numbers were from Lithuanians (50,535) and Slovakians (44,300).

The most popular jobs are in administration, business and management, followed by hospitality, catering and agriculture.

More than nine in 10 of the migrants had no dependants living with them when they registered, although 3 per cent arrived with children under 17.

A further 261,000 migrants from outside the EU were also given work permits in the past two years.

The number of people granted the right to settle in Britain reached a record high of 179,120 last year, three times the level of 10 years ago.

The most came from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Separate figures showed the number of new asylum applications fell by 15 per cent between the first and second quarters of this year. From April to June, there were 5490 applications, excluding dependants such as spouses and children - the lowest level since the third quarter of 1993.

The number of failed asylum-seekers removed from Britain was the highest on record, with 5070 including dependants removed in the second quarter, 3 per cent more than the previous three months and 35 per cent up on the same period last year. But the total number of people - failed asylum seekers and other immigration offenders - removed from the UK last year fell to 58,215, a drop of 5 per cent on the previous year.

- INDEPENDENT