UK Swamped
Immigrant influx report stirs controversy  

Race Riots in Bradford UK

5^th August 2002

LONDON - More than two million immigrants are likely to come to Britain in the next decade, a pressure group says in a report immediately branded as "scaremongering" by the country's main charity for asylum seekers.

Migration Watch, an independent think tank set up last October to campaign for a cut in immigration to Britain, said in a report on its website on Monday that two thirds would settle in London and the southeast.

The group said its estimate was a "conservative figure" based on official Home Office statistics together with its own estimates of illegal immigrant numbers.

"We believe there should there be an open and honest debate," former diplomat Sir Andrew Green, the group's chairman, told BBC radio.

More than 183,000 people migrated to Britain in 2000 and 125,000 of them were allowed to stay, Migration Watch said.

The group says an extra 55,000 people overstay their visas or enter the country undetected each year.

But Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, the country's biggest provider of legal advice and support to immigrants and asylum seekers, described the figures as "scaremongering".

"I think they are being somewhat naive if they think that putting out some of the figures they have is not going to be picked up on by the tabloid press and hyped up in order to try to scare the British people witless," he told the BBC.

Other critics of the report said it would fuel racism and boost support for far right political parties. But Green said he thought extreme parties would flourish unless the government took action.

"We are strongly opposed to them (right wing parties)," Green said. "We just don't believe the present situation is either sustainable or in the interests of any group in our society."

Immigration has become a key political issue in Britain with the Labour government facing accusations of failing to do enough to deter asylum seekers.

Earlier this year, the government announced a tightening of its immigration laws in a bid to remove failed asylum seekers more speedily.

The government has also put pressure on France to close the Sangatte refugee camp near Calais, northern France, after asylum seekers used it as a base from which to illegally enter Britain.

The Refugee Council, an independent support group, criticised the move at the time, saying it would hit vulnerable people fleeing war and human rights abuses abroad.

The Home Office said on Monday it had received Migration Watch's report and that officials would review it.

Reuters