Immigration figures released today by the Office for National Statistics show that a total of 565,000 people, or 1,500 a day, came to live in Britain for at least a year in 2005. That figure was offset by the 380,000 who left the country.

The largest group of immigrants was from 'New Commonwealth' countries, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but Poles formed the largest single group of arrivals.

Meanwhile, 198,000 Britons chose to abandon Britain for countries abroad, with the majority of those favouring Australia, followed by Spain and France, while just 91,000 chose to come home.

Britain has seen soaring levels of immigration from the late 1990s since Labour came to power. Figures show that in 1997 the population grew by 47,000 but the following year saw a rise of 139,000. Last year numbers peaked with a growth of 223,000 people.

Immigration is one of the Government's top priorities following growing public concern. Last month, John Reid, the Home Secretary, placed strict controls limiting the number of workers from Bulgaria and Romania entering Britain, when the two countries join the European Union in 2008.

The move to impose work controls was in stark contrast to the treatment of other new EU countries. When eight countries, including Poland, joined in 2004, Britain was one of only three countries to allow their residents unrestricted access to jobs. The Government predicted that up to 13,000 would come to Britain each year from those countries.

Today's data shows that last year alone 49,000 Polish citizens entered the UK, which is higher than any other foreign country and three times the figure for the previous year.

"I think we are seeing something very unusual in world experience," said Danny Sriskandarajah, a migration expert at the Institute for Public Policy Research. "Britain is becoming a sort of interchange, a hub of the movement of people," he told BBC television.

"There's lots of people moving in and there's also lots of people moving out. That's unlike any other state in the world."

The number of asylum seekers fell sharply from its peak of 81,000 in 2000 to 11,000 last year.

The figures also show that in 2005, 68,000 people from the 'Old Commonwealth' - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa - came to Britain intending to stay for at least a year, while 121,000 came from other Commonwealth countries.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of Migrationwatch, which campaigns against mass immigration, said: "These figures confirm that we are facing the largest wave of immigration in our history.

"The level of immigration is now four times that of 1997 and, if these figures are right, the bulk of immigration is not from Eastern Europe which accounts for just over one in five."

However, Sir Andrew raised concerns about the ONS’s data on Eastern European arrivals, which amounted to 64,000.

“The estimate for Eastern Europe looks dubious,” he said. “In that year, 205,000 registered for work and nearly half of these had permanent jobs. That makes 100,000, plus self-employed, who might be expected to stay here for more than a year, so 64,000 looks very low.”

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