BBC QT: UK immigration attitudes confuse audience member

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More than 1.6 million visas and permits were granted by the Government in the year ending March 2022, the Home Office has said. The figure marks a 145 percent increase on the previous 12 months to March 2021, according to the latest available immigration statistics, published on Thursday. However, the total is around half the number that was granted in the year ending March 2020, the period leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of the visas granted in the latest 12 months, 38 percent were to visit, 29 percent for study, 17 percent for work, three percent for family reasons, and 13 percent for other reasons, the Home Office said.

The new figures also show that the Government has granted less than half of the applications by people wanting to come to the UK from Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion.

Some 60,482 applications were received across both Ukraine visa schemes but only 27,979 have been granted.

The rate of total UK asylum applications granted has hit 75 percent – its highest in over 30 years (the rate was 82 percent in 1990).

According to the Home Office, this huge uptick in the acceptance of asylum seekers has been influenced by Brexit.

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It explained: “The rise in grant rate is in part because of the low number of refusals (including third country refusals, which have been affected by the UK leaving the EU), although the overall grant rate can vary for a number of reasons.”

The total number of asylum applications – 55,146 – in the year ending March 2022 was also the highest since 2003.

The figure is 56 percent more than in the year ending March 2020 and higher than at the peak of the European Migration crisis of 2015.

Ahead of the release of the Home Office data, a string of Tory MPs hit out at Priti Patel over the “drastic increase” in net immigration.

Referring to the new statistics before they were published, the group warned the Home Secretary that the rise “undeniably undermines” the Government’s Brexit promises.

More than 24 Conservatives wrote to Ms Patel in an open letter, according to the Daily Telegraph.

They said: “Of course, there are exceptional circumstances regarding Ukraine and Hong Kong.

“But the reality of such a drastic increase undeniably undermines our promise to reduce immigration numbers.

“As you have grasped, mass immigration only pays lip service to the concept of ‘control’.

“True control balances any need for high-skilled immigration with building a sustainable domestic workforce and the inevitable consequences of mass migration on societal cohesion, our housing and job markets, wage suppression and pressure on public services.”

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Many of the signatories were so-called Red Wall MPs, who won their constituencies in the 2019 General Election in Labour’s former heartlands by prioritising the pro-Brexit views of their constituents.

Among them are Lee Anderson, the MP for Ashfield, Nick Fletcher, the MP for Don Valley and Marco Longhi, the MP for Dudley North.

The letter, organised by Sir John Hayes, also praised Ms Patel’s recently announced plan to process migrants crossing the English Channel in Rwanda.

The MPs said the scheme was “exactly the kind of radical, but rational and proportionate, policy that will get to grips with our dysfunctional asylum system”.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Leaving the EU has given us control over our own immigration system.

“The new points-based system delivers on a key Government commitment to put in place an immigration system which works in our national interest.”

They added: “However, the rise in dangerous Channel crossings is unacceptable – they risk lives and hinder our ability to help refugees who come via safe and legal routes.”

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