LONDON
Net migration to the U.K. has been underestimated by 346,000 across ten years according to the country's Office of National Statistics on Thursday.
The underestimate occurred during a period stretching from 2001 to 2011.
The statistics body says that the system that collects information from passengers arriving in the U.K., – the International Passenger Survey – missed migrants arriving from the 'European Union 8' countries, those countries that joined the EU in 2004. Migrants from countries such as Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia were not properly counted.
As the passenger survey initially concentrated on major airports like Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester, it neglected the fact that many people were increasingly arriving at regional U.K. airports.
The Office of National Statistics says that this continued until 2008 when more regional airports were included in the IPS survey and there were increased interviews with migrants taking place at airports such as Luton and Stansted.
Net migration, which measures the migration moving to the UK and takes it away from those leaving the country, is estimated to be 346,000 higher than previously thought for 2001-2011. For the ten-year period it was estimated that net migration would be nearly 2.2 million. That figure is now over 2.5 million.
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