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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Kenan Malik

There are lies, damn lies, and then there is Home Office propaganda about migrants

Home Office Priti Patel Taliban Channel Britain Albania
A uniformed police officer stands on the beach as people wearing lifejackets disembark from a lifeboat
Official figures show that the majority of cross-Channel migrants are not, as has been claimed, Albanians. Above, a lifeboat arrives in Dungeness with people who were picked up at sea in June 2022. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

There are Home Office statistics and then there are Home Office press releases. And the gap between the two is often so wide that even the most resourceful migrant would be unlikely to discover a way of navigating from the one to the other.

Last week, the latest set of immigration statistics arrived, a comprehensive data set for the year ending June 2022. It’s a goldmine for researchers, and a nightmare for Home Office propagandists.

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