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Record number of EU workers in Britain, official figures reveal

Xinhua, August 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

The number of people from European Union (EU) countries working in Britain has reached a record 2.23 million, official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed Wednesday.

The total includes more than 1 million from the eight East European countries -- Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, which joined the EU in 2004. That number increased by 44,000 year-on-year. But 10 years ago the figure of EU workers from these eight countries was about 250,000, a quarter of the current level.

The figures are the first to be released after the June 23 referendum which voted for Britain's exit from the EU.

They are likely to fuel the migration debate which was one of the hot topics for the pre-referendum debates. One of the main reasons cited by many people supporting Brexit was the need for Britain to have greater control of its borders.

Frank Field, the Labour MP who chairs the House of Commons' Work and Pensions Select Committee, said the figures "show how crucial it is that one aspect of Brexit's success must be the control of our borders."

"As a party we have known that unfettered and unrestricted mass immigration into Britain from Europe causes wages to stagnate, and pushes British workers to the back of the queue. The benefit of Brexit is that we will finally regain control of our borders. These figures show that the Europe Project of allowing Eastern European countries to join would lead to one-way traffic. The Baltic area of Europe is depopulating faster than any other region on the planet," Paul Nuttall, a member of the European Parliament and deputy leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, told Xinhua.

"British people voted Brexit for three reasons, sovereignty, money and migration. The EU has made a big mistake by trying to do too many things too quickly and I am expecting a flow of other member countries wanting to quit the EU," he added.

ONS figures show that the number of non-UK nationals working in Britain now is 3.45 million, 242,000 higher than a year ago. It means that over one-in-10 workers in Britain are from outside the UK.

The ONS said the increase in non-UK nationals working in Britain reflects the admission of several new member states to the European Union.

The figures show that the number of overseas workers from non-EU countries employed in Britain has remained more or less the same level for almost 10 years.

In 2010, the number of workers from EU countries and non-EU countries were 1.3 million and 1.2 million respectively. A year ago, the number of EU residents working in Britain passed the 2 million mark.

Commenting on the ONS figures, Lord Green, chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: "These figures represent a milestone in EU migration to Britain. The pressures that this massive migration has placed on local communities go a long way to explaining the outcome of the referendum. The new statistics underline why it is essential not just to regain control of our borders but also to reduce net migration significantly."

"It is also important to realize that some 80 percent of EU migrants are in lower skilled employment. Migration into lower-skilled work is not of particular benefit to the UK economy," he added. Endi