UK immigration from Central and Eastern Europe falling

Central and Eastern Europe immigrants in the UK have continued to fall, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Provisional numbers from the office suggest the number of people from these countries fell by a third in the year to June 2009, although overall UK Immigration saw more people entering the UK annually than leaving.

There were only 68,000 new arrivals from the new European Union states, compared with 100,000 in the year to June 2008.

The government uses a variety of statistics to monitor UK immigration rates, including the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS). The WRS counts economic migrants from eight central and eastern European members of the EU.

In the last quarter of the year there were 28,495 WRS applications - down slightly on the previous year and almost half the rate in the last three months of 2007.

The UK Visa Bureau is an independent consulting company specialising in helping people lodge UK Visa applications with the British Embassy.