Britain's net migration reaches record high

Net international migration to Britain reached more than 330,000 in the year ending March 2015, British Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Thursday.

ONS said the net migration figure increased significantly from 236,000 in the year ending March 2014 to a record high of 330,000.

Statistics showed that the immigration reached 636,000 in the year ending March 2015, while the emigration was 307,000.

Net migration of EU citizens increased to 183,000, up 53,000 from the year ending March 2014, and the number of non-EU net migration reached 196,000.

A total of 53,000 Romanian and Bulgarian citizens immigrated to Britain in the 12 months, a statistically significant increase and almost double the 28,000 in the previous 12 months, ONS said.

The number of people immigrating for work in the 12 months reached 290,000, among which the EU citizens immigrated for work increased to 162,000 and non-EU citizens for work reached 64,000.

Meanwhile, the number of people immigrating for study slightly increased to 188,000 in the year ending March 2015, comparing with 176,000 in the year of 2014.

ONS said there were 25,771 asylum applications in the year ending June 2015, an increase of 10 percent compared with the previous 12 months.

It said the largest number of asylum applications came from nationals of Eritrea, Pakistan and Syria. A total of 11,600 people were granted asylum or an alternative form of protection.

British government is aiming to reduce the net migration to below 100,000, and however, the latest figure is more than three times higher.

Source: XINHUA