Commenting on the release of the latest asylum statistics today Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, said: ‘We welcome the significant fall in asylum claims last year but removals are stuck at the same level as 2004 so the Home Office have fallen well short of the Prime Minister’s target.
‘This means that the number of failed asylum seekers still in Britain, already about 1/4 million, is continuing to grow.
‘The government have still not got a grip of asylum, let alone immigration where the numbers from Eastern Europe rose sharply by nearly 50,000 in just three months. When will the government realise that this is a small overcrowded island?’