One in 12 in London is an illegal immigrant

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/22/one-in-12-in-london-is-an-illegal-migrant/

by Lord-Termi

31 comments
  1. > Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the figures in the report were “deeply alarming”.

    > “Having lost control of illegal immigration over the Channel, the Labour Government must now urgently start deporting far more illegal immigrants,” he said.

    Chris, which party allowed unparalleled levels of migration into the UK over the last 14 years?

  2. > The new estimate has emerged in a study commissioned by Thames Water

    Some newspapers are just expensive bog roll.

  3. I think what we see of the illegal immigration issue in the UK is just the very tip of an iceberg. Unless government changes a few rules, it will only get worse.

  4. It’s amazing that you can become less informed on any subject just by reading the Telegraph.

  5. How would they know?

    “Hello sir, are you an illegal immigrant?”

  6. Honestly this just doesn’t pass the sniff test. I don’t believe it. 

    While some will undoubtedly be working illegally, and others will be financially supported by their partner (etc.) I just don’t see that 1 in 12 people in one of the world’s most expensive cities are surviving financially without access to either work or the benefits system. 

  7. Basically, find the Man City supporters and ask them where were they when they were shit and you’ll find your culprits.

  8. I do enjoy how the same people that think decades of peer reviewed vaccine studies are not to be trusted

    But then a Torygraph story saying patent bullshit about 1 in 12 being illegal in the city based on a report by a water company where the actual stat in question is by an _unnamed_ third party consultant using unknown methodology is perfectly believable

  9. I was really confused what study thames water would be commissioning that would need to come to this conclusion but that seems to be answered by

    > A Thames Water spokesman said: “Water companies have a regulatory obligation to undertake a ‘water balance’, which includes understanding how much water our customers use on a per-person basis, and how it is distributed across our supply area.

    > “Analysis to estimate ‘hidden and transient’ populations is carried out by an independent firm of consultants, who draw from publicly available sources including census, surveys, and published academic research. Thames Water played no part in the writing of the report and the conclusions drawn are those of the independent firm that carried out the research.”

    I can’t draw anything about its accuracy from that either way since there’s not really a methodology. But it would be hilarious if it turned out Thames Water were trying to claim they don’t actually have any leaks, all the water is being drunk off the books by illegal immigrants

  10. lol as a londoner there is absolutely no way this is true. Horseshit

  11. Anyone who lives here knows this is total bollocks…

  12. > The report suggests most illegal migrants arrived in the UK on work, study or visitor visas and then overstayed.

    But but but I thought small boat migrants are where all the illegal migrants are from!

  13. Those bloody Normans! Always ruining everything for the native Anglo-Saxons…

  14. People who don’t live in London will believe this and share it on Facebook with their family and mates with a message about Sadiq Khan is doing.

  15. Carried out by the reliable company, Thames Water. 

    Nah! 

    Edit: 
    Forgot they got rejected by OFWAT so probably helping opposition with their rhetoric to clap back at Labour 
     https://search.app/pYdfXDbFejrGwsKw5

  16. Based on a report made by Thames Water? Weird, but this is the ever increasingly shit Telegraph

  17. ‘Having lost control of illegal immigration’ when was it ever really in control?

  18. So apparently there’s 812,000 illegal immigrants in London….
    That’s certainly a number

  19. When you order a Deliveroo or just eat etc you are sustaining the system. Faceless people delivering your Ramen. It’s true.

  20. Let the dumb fuck bark as much as he wants…all talk

  21. >The new estimate has emerged in a study commissioned by Thames Water,

    So this is what they are doing instead of supplying water.

  22. One party deported more 16,000 immigrants in 6 months. And another party couldn’t even pay asylum seekers to go to Rwanda.

    I know which I’d prefer.

  23. All these Tory’s complaining about immigration are going to be absolutely furious when they find out which party was the government for the last decade and a half

  24. > London is home to **as many as** 585,000 illegal migrants, equivalent to one in 12..

    So that is the upper estimate. This comes from a report for Thames Water, produced by an analytics group owned by a US data-mining company. One of the things they specialise in is studying the [Hidden and Transient population](https://www.edgeanalytics.co.uk/post/hidden-transient-population-estimates).

    This covers “Irregular Migrants, Short-Term Residents, Second Addresses, Domestic Day Visitors, Domestic Night Visitors, Foreign Night Visitors.”

    The Telegraph seems to have taken just the first part, and ignored all the rest…

    > For the whole of London, it produced a range of 390,355 illegal migrants at its lowest to 585,533 at its highest, with a median figure of 487,944. With an estimated population of 7,044,667, that would mean one in 12 of the capital’s population is an illegal migrant.

    So the headline is not supported by the data.

  25. As someone else pointed out, the source is pretty dubious , some ‘consultant’. Seems like classic deflection.

  26. Isn’t thames water in the news a lot recently? funny timing for this to come out when their under the news a lot for taking lots of money.

  27. just your regular reminder that in recent years the Telegraph has slid across from being a disagreeble but vaguely sane right-wing mouthpiece to being a full blown pro-Trump shitrag. as you were.

  28. willing american 51st staters getting their Daily Hate in.

  29. This bit is *particularly* suspect to me tbh

    “The new estimate has emerged in a study commissioned by Thames Water, obtained by The Telegraph under freedom of information-style laws for the environment.

    In total, there are estimated to be more than one million illegal migrants in the UK, with 60 per cent of those in the capital.

    The report suggests most illegal migrants arrived in the UK on work, study or visitor visas and then overstayed.”

  30. I’m only surprised the figure isn’t higher. Visiting London is like going to a foreign country, and not in a good way. It’s not the only city to have similar problems, either. Leicester is, if anything, even worse. It is unrecognisable from the city I knew in the 90s and decline into a third world shithole is almost complete.

  31. And this survey was done how? Who did it? How are you going to get an “illegal” to admit their status? ( and yes, I agree, it’s a big problem for most of coastal Europe)

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