Migration to UK reaches record high

Migration to Britain has reached a new record high, according to official data released Thursday that could make uncomfortable viewing for the government of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Immigration is one of Bri-tain’s most sensitive political issues and Cameron has vowed to curb it, with concerns over border control key to support for leaving the European Union ahead of a referendum on membership due in 2016.

The official metric of migration, which calculates the balance between people arriving and leaving, found that there was net migration to Britain of 3,36,000, according to the Office for National Statistics. This was the highest estimate on record and a jump of 32 per cent on the figure for net migration in the 2014.

“Net migration has incr-eased over the last year for both EU and non-EU nationals, with the majority of people migrating to the UK coming for work or study,” said Jay Lindop, head of population statistics at ONS. Net migration of EU citizens was up over 30 per cent compared to the 2014, while the rise of net migration from outside the EU was also significant at 22 per cent.

The figures may renew focus on a promise by the Conservative party to cut net migration to just tens of thousands.

A Dutch high court meanwhile on Thursday upheld a government policy of refusing food and shelter to rejected asylum-seekers who refuse to be repatriated.

The Raad van State, which reviews the legality of government decisions, found that the policy does not contravene the European Conv-ention on Human Rights and that a rejected asylum-seeker does not have the right to appeal to the European Social Charter.

The Dutch government “has the right, when providing shelter in so-called locations of limited freedom, to require failed asylum-seekers to cooperate with their departure from the Nethe-rlands,” a summary of the ruling said.

Meanwhile, UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres wa-rned on Thursday that closing borders on Muslims fleeing violence by ISIS is counterproductive and only risks helping the group gro-w stronger.