What Is The Estimate Of Illegal Immigrants That Come To Britain Every Year?

The number of illegal immigrants entering the UK is hard to quantify. The only known fact is the numbers applying for asylum. 35,000 people applied for asylum in 2004 according to the Home Office. In reality this number is much higher as the 35,000 does not include their dependants.

Many of people entering UK dodge immigration officials altogether as they enter the country or only declare their intention to seek asylum at a later date. An unknown number of people slip into the country and permanently evade detection, but experts fail to agree of the figure, some claiming that it is not significant. The fact is that it is impossible to calculate the exact number of illegal immigrants as the immigrants' intention is to stay hidden from the UK officials.


According to BBC, the government has calculated that there are about 500,000 illegal immigrants in Britain at the moment. The commonly known fact is that nobody is really aware of the scale of the problem.