LONDON

The annual net migration to the UK has risen to 672,000 in the year to June 2023 which is up from 607,000 for the previous year, official figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed on Thursday.

Net migration represents the annual count of individuals entering the UK, accounting for both immigration and emigration.

The previous figures released in May said that net migration had hit 606,000, a record high for a calendar year.

However, revised numbers shared by the ONS showed that the record figure for annual net migration was actually 745,000 in the year to December 2022, meaning up by 139,000 in 2022 net migration figures.

The newly published data also revealed that the vast majority of arrivals were from non-EU countries, while students account for the largest group of non-EU migrants.

Those immigrating long-term on study-related visas – main applicants and dependents – made up 39% of non-EU long-term immigration at 378,000 in the year ending June 2023, said the ONS, adding this is an increase from 320,000 in the previous period.

Early this year, the British government introduced new regulations limiting international students bringing their family members to the UK in a bid to curb migration rates.

Britain also recorded an increase in the number of people who arrive through irregular routes and then claim asylum.

Citing the Home Office, the ONS noted that 90% of small boat arrivals, 40,386, claimed asylum or were recorded as a dependent on an asylum application in the year ending June.

People who had arrived in the UK as asylum seekers made up 1% of non-EU emigration.

Tackling small boat crossings by irregular migrants across the British Channel is among five priorities of the British government, as more than 45,000 migrants arrived in the country that way last year.

In a bid to address the issue, the British government announced its controversial Rwanda plan which was ruled by the UK Supreme Court on Nov. 15 as unlawful.

The plan, signed in April 2022 by then-UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta, proposed sending asylum seekers trying to enter the UK to Rwanda for resettlement.

The European Court of Human Rights stopped the first deportation flight to Rwanda at the last minute in June last year.