A borderless EU harms everyone but the gangs that sell false dreams | The Sunday Times

(Paul Vicente)

I AM not going to beat about the bush. The numbers are far too high. This government has an objective to reduce annual net migration to the tens of thousands — but the latest figures, released on Thursday, show it is three times that level, at 330,000.

The unprecedented number has led some to say we can’t control immigration in the modern world — that we simply have to manage it or accept it as the consequence of a successful economy.

I disagree. Net migration at that volume is simply unsustainable. It puts pressure on infrastructure, such as housing and transport — and public services, such as schools and hospitals.

In our Immigration Act of 2014, we made it harder for illegal migrants to access public services, and restricted the ability of temporary migrants to benefit from systems to which they had not contributed.

We introduced the immigration health surcharge to ensure that