Bel is thinking

According to Government figures, one immigrant a minute enters the UK.

This relates only to legal immigration in 2005.

One wonders what the figures are for illegal immigration. Because of the nature of illegal immigration, it is impossible to know this figure. One suspects it could well be higher than the figures for legal immigration, especially if one factors in people who overstay.

MigrationWatch does not believe the Government figures for legal immigration. They think they are an underestimate, because, for example, of all the Eastern Europeans who arrived in the UK in 2005, only 65,000 are recorded as immigrants.

Here is a little holiday game to keep you occupied. I’m nice like that.

1) Let us, for the sake of argument, set the proportion of illegal immigration far lower. Rather than one a minute, as in the case of legal immigration (ie almost 1500 a day), let us posit that only 100 illegal immigrants enter the UK every day. (This is a very conservative estimate.)

2) We were told recently that based on the estimated number of illegal immigrants already in the country, it would take 10 years to deport them, assuming a deportation rate of 25,000 a year.

Now here is our game:

• Question 1:
• If 100 illegal immigrants come into the UK every day, and 25,000 are deported every year, how long will it take to deport everybody who shouldn’t be here?

Exactly.

OK, let’s try a simpler question:

• Question 2
• If 100 illegal immigrants come into the UK every day, and 25,000 are deported every year, how many will have been deported in twenty years?

Time for the calculator, methinks.