The UK has welcomed almost 300,000 foreign workers in the last year, the Home Office has announced - a drop of 11 per cent since 2023.

Britain granted 286,382 visas to immigrants seeking employment in the year ending June 2024, according to new figures, marking a decrease on last year's data, but more than double 2019 levels.

Of that number, the Home Office dished out nearly 90,000 "Health and Care Worker" visas - again, a decrease on last year, with a notable drop-off between April and June 2024.

The much-maligned health worker visas have prompted warnings in the past from migration analysts over their role in undercutting wages encouraging foreign workers to bring their wives and children to the UK, exacerbating the housing crisis.

Small boat arrivals have increased quarter-on-quarter - and are very slightly down on this time last year

In the latest figures, the Home Office confirmed it handed more than 260,000 visas to work dependants or family members - with "Health and Care Worker" dependants alone accounting for 69 per cent of that number.

Graphs from the home office group foreign workers and dependants into one category, leaving the total number of "work" visas granted at 547,000.

That number sits alongside 530,000 study visas and 84,000 family visas - meaning some 1.2 million people have entered the UK via legal means in the last year.

But alongside the legal figures, Britain has taken on some 38,784 "detected irregular arrivals", a 26 per cent decrease since the year ending June 2023.

Around one-sixth (16 per cent) of detected irregular arrivals in the year ending June 2024 were Afghans, with Iranian, Vietnamese, Turkish and Syrian nationals rounding out the top five.

Of the total number of illegal arrivals, approximately 31,000 people came to Britain on small boats.

The news comes just days after the amount of small boat migrants was confirmed to have crossed the 19,000 mark in 2024 alone.