Sunak Accused Of Abandoning Control Of Borders As Net Immigration Hits Record High

Rishi Sunak has been accused of abandoning control of UK borders and faces anger from Conservative MPs after net migration to Britain and the backlog of asylum claims reached record highs, it emerged yesterday

- Rajeev Syal

The prime minister was forced to concede that the numbers should come down after figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that overall migration into the UK for 2022 was 606,000, which represents a 24% increase on the previous high of 488,000 last year.

The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, appeared to suggest processing claims faster could encourage more people to come to the country through illegal routes after Home Office figures showed that more than 100,000 people had waited longer than six months for a decision. Total long-term immigration was estimated at about 1.2 million in 2022, and emigration was 557,000, the ONS said.

The rise had been largely fuelled by people from outside the EU entering the UK to study, work or escape conflict or oppression.

According to the ONS data, the nonEU arrivals included 361,000 students and their families, 235,000 people coming for work-related reasons, 172,000 coming on humanitarian schemes from countries including Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan, and 76,000 people claiming asylum.