Britain has the largest illegal immigrant population in Europe
One in every 100 inhabitants in the country is there illegally, surpassing Germany and France. The Labour government is facing accusations of an increase in crimes committed by immigrants.
Boatload of African immigrants
Britain is home to more illegal immigrants than any other European nation, according to a new study. British newspaper The Telegraph recently published that there are more than 745,000 illegal immigrants in the United Kingdom, representing one in every 100 inhabitants, according to research led by experts at Oxford University.
This number is far higher than the 300,000 illegal migrants living in France and surpasses even Germany, which was believed to have the largest number on the continent, with around 700,000.
The release of this report came as the British Interior Ministry reported that 973 migrants aboard 17 boats crossed the English Channel last weekend, which was the largest daily number in 2024.
The total number of people crossing in 2024 is 5% higher than in 2023 at the same stage. French authorities reported at the same time that four people died Saturday on these crossings of the English Channel, including a 2-year-old boy who was "trampled to death" in a boat.
The Labour government is under fire because of an increase in human-smuggling gangs and crimes committed by immigrants in Britain. The Telegraph revealed last week that one in 50 Albanians in the U.K. is in jail.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to crack down on human-smuggling gangs by setting up a Border Security Command but has rejected calls to abandon the HRD agreements that would allow him to tackle the crisis. He argues that a deal with the European Union to send English Channel migrants back to France would be achieved if the country remained in the European Court of Human Rights.
Added to the 745,000 illegal immigrants are the 224,742 asylum seekers awaiting a decision on their application. Denis Kierans, a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford's Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), argues that it is important for those in government to be aware of the escalation because "these are people who are living and working in the U.K., but who are operating outside the mainstream tax and benefits system. What that means is the state is missing out on their contributions to the public purse while they end up at the fringes of society, at risk of exploitation and destitution."
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