Another day, another Mail immigration scare story

Britain faces fresh influx of immigrants as EU looks to 'share out' number of refugees rages the Mail in a box-ticking story that attacks both immigration policy and the EU.

Yes, those dastardly fiends in Brussels have come up with a new ruse to flood Britain with immigrants:

Britain will be asked to accept thousands more refugees as part of Brussels moves towards a single immigration and asylum policy across the EU.

Plans for a 'Joint EU Resettlement Programme' will see Britain asked to take in thousands of extra refugees a year from war zones like Somalia and Sudan.

Oh no!

Last year the EU accepted 6.7 per cent of the 65,596 refugees who were legally resettled around the world.

The Commission did not set a public target for the new programme today, but a Brussels source said the figure should be 'much closer to 20 per cent'.

So based on the word of a suspiciously anonymous source, and a series of highly speculative assumptions, the Mail decides this will mean 5,300 more immigrants coming to the UK.

Britain has been one of only ten EU countries taking part in the scheme already, and taken only 2,500 refugees over five years - so only 500 per year to the UK. In fact, this proposal has been designed to make resettlement easier and more efficient and should increase the countries taking refugees, thus sharing the burden between more EU states.

The last line of the story is left to the Home Office spokesman, who says:

'We will consider and scrutinise the details of these new proposals very carefully prior to agreement and the UK has the ability to opt out of any proposal that is not in our national interest.'

So while Britain will be 'asked' they could opt-out?

Yes - even the EU press release on the proposal reveals:

Do Member States have to participate in the 'Joint EU Resettlement Programme'?

No. The establishment of the Programme will not mean that all Member States will be obliged to take part in resettlement. Currently, Member States decide for themselves whether they want to resettle at all, and if so, which nationalities and which persons. This situation will not change. However the programme will help Member States to take more informed and efficient decisions.

Hmm. Read a more balanced version of the proposal on the BBC website.