Three quarters of migrants from the European Union (EU) would have been barred from working in the UK if it were not for Brussels rules on free movement, a new study has found.
In figures that expose how little control Britain has over its borders, Oxford University’s Migration Observatory found that three in four EU workers in the UK would not meet the work visa rules non-EU citizens have to follow.
In sectors such as farming, retail, hotels and restaurants, up to 95 per cent would not have met the requirements.
Britain’s visa rules are designed so that Britain only takes migrants with the skills that it needs, but due to Brussels diktats, citizens of EU countries can live and work in Britain freely.
At least 1.6 million have come to Britain over the past decade, equivalent to 500 people every day, with a large number of them settling in London.
Conservative MP Ann Main said: “This is the choice faced by Britain on June 23: from today until the polling day, the UK will need to find housing, hospitals and schools to accompany a new town the size of Canterbury, Torquay or Folkestone.”
The Migration Observatory’s study, carried out for the Financial Times, found that 96 per cent of EU migrant labourers on Britain’s farms would not meet visa requirements, while 94 per cent in the retail sector would also be affected.
Last month, a leaked government report said how mass immigration was damaging social cohesion, with highly qualified EU migrants taking low-skilled jobs from less well qualified Brits.
“Net migration continues to rise at record levels and is now 336,000,” the report added, continuing:
“The biggest contributor is the increase in the long-term migration of EU citizens. This is equivalent to adding a new Coventry to the UK every year.
“‘Newly arriving EEA [European Economic Area] nationals have a disproportionate impact on the UK. Numbers in employment in the UK grew by nearly 450,000 in the last year. EEA nationals secured about three quarters of that growth in employment, compared to 25 per cent for UK nationals.”