Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

Net long-term migration to the U.K. rose to 330,000 in the year ending March 2015, the highest figure on record, dealing a further blow to Prime Minister David Cameron’s pledge to reduce the annual inflow to below 100,000.

The rise constituted a “statistically significant increase” from the year ending March 2014, when a net 236,000 arrived in the U.K., the Office for National Statistics in London said Thursday.

Cameron has renewed efforts since his re-election in May to curb the influx, putting caps on the number of visas given to skilled workers from outside the European Union and announcing plans this month to punish illegal foreign workers with jail terms. He’s been meeting fellow EU leaders in a bid to renegotiate Britain’s membership terms and make the country a less attractive destination.

Arrivals of EU citizens into the U.K. rose by 56,000 to 269,000, when compared with the year ending March 2014, the highest level for this group, the ONS said. A total of 53,000 Romanian and Bulgarian citizens immigrated to the U.K. in the year ending March 2015, almost double the 28,000 in the previous 12 months.

As many as 61 percent of EU citizens immigrating for work had a definite job to go to, whereas 39 percent were intending to job-hunt in the U.K., according to the statistics. EU free- movement rules mean the U.K. only has control over migrants from outside the bloc.

A poll by Ipsos MORI last week showed Britons are the most concerned they’ve ever been about immigration, with a third of those surveyed saying it was the single most-important issue facing the U.K.