REVEALED: The two European countries MOST ATTRACTIVE to illegal migrants in shock new stats

According to the think-tank, illegal migrants entering the UK come from safe countries of the EU, and an increasing number of these migrants have been crossing the English Channel in small boats escorted by the French Navy.

The report revealed the two most popular destinations for EU illegal migrants are Germany and the United Kingdom.

The think tank stated: "Ask any group of the EU’s illegal migrants their preferred final destination and the two most common answers are Germany and the United Kingdom."

Germany topped the list of the EU countries with the most detections of illegal migrants standing at 2,150,955 between 2012 and 2023.

In the UK, Home Office figures show that 15,076 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel this year.

This is 9 per cent higher than the number recorded this time last year (13,744) and 0.2 per cent down on the same period in 2022 (15,106), according to PA.

It comes as new data from the EU Commission's statistics showed that in the last five years, the annual number of EU asylum applicants has jumped by two-thirds and that the figure for last year alone broke the one million barrier.

This means there has been a 66 per cent rise in the EU's number of first time asylum seekers in the last five years.

In 2019 the number of first-time asylum seekers stood at 631,285 which rose to 1,049,020 in 2023.

The EU's number of pending asylum applications also continues to grow and grow.

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The latest figures show the bloc had 1,173,370 applications backed up in the system waiting for a decision and as the number of applications rises, the backlog will inevitably rise with it.

At the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wanted to go back to "the source" of the problem.

He said: "To stop illegal migration, we must also tackle it at source.

“Today I’m announcing £84 million of new funding for projects across Africa and the Middle East – that includes humanitarian and health support, skills training, help with job opportunities and access to education.”