Forget foreign aid: British migrants send £11BILLION back to other countries in a YEAR
BRITISH migrants sent £11bn back to foreign nations last year – the same amount as our entire Foreign Aid budget.
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A
new report shows that the UK topped the list of EU nations in terms of
how much migrant cash is sent to home countries rather than being spent
to boost the economy where it is earned.
Germany, which
has 17 million more people than Britain, sent back £9bn during the same
period while in France the figure was £6.6bn.
Last
night one Conservative MP warned that the astounding figure “drained
away from our economy” showed that increasing migration is a “net cost
and not an asset” to Britain.
In total, migrants from
across Europe transferred £69bn in remittances last year, said the
International Fund for Agricultural Development.
A
third, £23bn, was sent back to Eastern Europe while the balance, £46bn,
went to more than 50 developing countries outside Europe.
In Britain, around £2bn went to Eastern Europe while the rest was sent mainly to Asia and Africa.
Taxpayers will question why child benefit and child tax credits are being sent abroad to such a significant degree
Last night IFAD, a UN
agency based in Rome, conceded that the British figures could have
included money derived from child credits and benefits.
Almost
20,000 economic migrants are sending child benefits back to their own
countries and 7, 026 are currently transferring child credit payments,
Treasury minister Damien Hinds disclosed last week.
“Taxpayers
will question why child benefit and child tax credits are being sent
abroad to such a significant degree,” said Jonathan Isaby, chief
executive of the Taxpayers Alliance.
“Ultimately, these benefits are intended to support children here in the UK, and paid for by taxpayers in the UK”
Referring
to the £8.8bn British migrants sent to countries outside the EU, he
added: “The sheer size of the remittances bill will surprise, and it's
something we must think about when we make decisions on foreign aid.
People
can do whatever they want with their own money, of course, but the
generosity of Brits sending money abroad should be taken into account
when we set targets like the 0.7 per cent of GDP for aid spending. “
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IFAD
said the remittances from Europe to developing nations and “fragile
states” were “vital for the survival of millions of families”.
“There
is a short term view that about the impact that, in Britain’s case for
instance, the loss of £11bn could have on the economy,” said one of the
report’s authors, Pedro De Vasconcelos, last night.
“In
the longer term however, it can be argued that the more that is sent
back to Eastern Europe and developing nations, the more likely it is
that there will be less need for migration in the future.”
This was rejected by former defence minister Gerald Howarth, however.
“It’s
more likely to be a magnet factor because, if people realise they can
send so much money back to poorer countries, more will want to do just
that,” said the Conservative MP.
“The fact that
British migrants sent more than any other EU nation speaks to the
growing migrant population in this country. We have seen £11bn drain
away from our country - not spent in our shops and not going to our
businesses. This shows our high levels of migration are a cost, and not
an asset, to Britain.”
Mr Howarth criticised Britain’s
Overseas Aid bill,which has now increased to £11.7bn, the most generous
in Europe and the second most generous globally, outstripped only by the
US.
“You might argue that these migrants could ensure
the money went to worthy causes in their own countries. That would allow
us to save on the aid budget so it could be put towards the Armed
Forces, where it’s really needed.”
The report showed
that Russian migrants sent the most home, around £13bn mainly to Baltic
neighbours. Britain came second, topping the list of EU nations,
followed by Germany and France.
Migrants in Italy,
which is currently experiencing 13 per cent unemployment, sent £6.5bn
while Spain, where almost a quarter of the workforce is without a job,
still managed to send £6bn.
The figures, provided by
the World Bank, were based solely on money's sent through official
remittance agencies, and do not include other types of bank transfer.
UKIP
migration spokesman Steven Woolfe said: “The total amount of money UK
immigrants send back to their home countries is now equivalent to the
total UK aid budget which we believe should be cut in order to finance
home grown infrastructure projects.
“These
remittance numbers rarely feature in the assessments by those who favour
mass immigration and too often claim that it has a positive economic
effect on Britain’s economy. In fact, once this money leaves these
shores it’s often gone for good or used to attract even more migrants.”
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