The British government’s policy in the fight against immigration is not conclusive, according to the figures which have just been revealed. Last year, 1.2 million people to settled in the UK, 600,000 more than those who left the country. The British migration balance is therefore more unbalanced than ever. The authorities point out that the year 2022 was exceptional, especially with the war in Ukraine: the United Kingdom took in more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. But there are also still many clandestine Channel crossings.
140,000 pending immigration application files
This puts pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was already weakened by the Conservative Party’s poor results in local elections three weeks ago. These immigration figures confirm his critics in his own party, who do not find him tough enough. To be offensive, Rishi Sunak decreed new measures to complicate obtaining visas and undertook, by the end of the year, to solve the problem of processing times for immigration applications. . More than 140,000 files are currently pending, explains France Télévisions journalist Claire Vérove, special correspondent for Carnoustie.