This photo provided by the Prefecture Maritime du Nord et de la Manche shows migrants continuing their journey to Britain off northern France coast, Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Almost half of Brits believe that most immigration to the UK is illegal rather than legal, according to a new poll.

As researchers at YouGov found, there is a “simple misconception” around the scale and nature of British immigration.

Of the 8,055 UK adults approached for the poll, 47% said they believe there’s more illegal immigration rather than legal – including 32% who said the illegal figure is “much higher”.

The trouble is the number of undocumented people who arrive into the UK via so-called illegal means, like crossing the English Channel in a small boat, is actually dwarfed by the number of arrive legally.

According to the Home Office, there were 44,125 irregular arrivals in the year to March, 86% of whom arrived on small boats.

That works out to be just 4% of the 948,000 overall number who immigrated to the UK........

© HuffPost