Latest stats on immigration to the UK published
The UK government recently published immigration statistics for the year to March 2019, and these will prove of interest to individuals thinking about migrating to the UK in the near future.
The barristers at Richmond Chambers have extracted some of the most useful information for potential migrants to the UK below, and interested parties can view the complete dataset on the government website.
Numbers of people coming to the UK each year
Approximately 143.9mn travellers arrived in the UK for the year ending 31 March 2019, and this figure includes residents returning to the country. This is a 4% increase on 2018 and the highest number currently on record. Around 124.3mn travellers were UK, EU, or Swiss nationals, and arrivals from non-European Economic Area (EEA) countries decreased to 19.6mn (a drop of 7%).
A total of 3mn visas were issued in the year to 31 March 2019, which is an increase of 9% on 2018. Of this total, 77% were for visitor visas, 8% were study visas, 6% were work visas, and 2% were family-related.
More about work visas
There was an 11% increase in the number of work visas allocated for the year, which includes figures of dependants. This amounted to a total of 18,461, with around 75% of these relating to Tier 2 Skilled Work visas. This category accounted for 59% of the total work visas granted for the year. A total of 106,524 work visas were issued for the year, which is an overall increase of 15% to 106,524.
What about asylum seekers or refugees?
A total of 17,304 people were granted protection in the UK for the year, including asylum seeker grants, humanitarian protection, or some other form of leave or resettlement. This is the highest number of protection grants since the year to 30 September 2003. There were 5,794 refugee resettlements in the year, under the Vulnerable Person Resettlement Scheme and 687 vulnerable children resettlements.
Asylum applications were up for the year at a total of 31,589.
Richmond Chambers is a barrister-only immigration law firm, specialising in visa applications and immigration appeals. Get in touch to find out more.
