PRIME Minister David Cameron has insisted that his promise to reduce immigration to below 100,000 a year is still "achievable", despite predictions that figures due out todaywill show 30,000 have come from Romania and Bulgaria alone since the start of the year.
Commons Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz cited the forecast figure as he pressed the PM to admit that - with net migration soaring to 212,000 last year - he was "not going to meet that target" by the time of the general election in May 2015.
But Mr Cameron insisted: "The target remains. I think it is absolutely achievable."
Appearing before the House of Commons Liaison Committee, he declined to discuss the figures for Romanians and Bulgarians before their publication but said his administration had brought net migration down by one-fifth since coming to office.
The PM also resisted pressure to end the inclusion of foreign students in the net migration statistics, which has helped hold the figure down but has been blamed by critics for cutting the overseas income of UK colleges.
Mr Cameron insisted that the fall in overall numbers of foreign students was driven by action to shut down hundreds of "bogus" colleges, and cited statistics showing that numbers of genuine overseas students at British universities had risen from 142,000 to 162,000 since 2010.
He said that the UK was making an "incredible offer" to would-be students from overseas, by saying that there would be no limit on the numbers who can study at a British university, provided they have an English-language qualification and an offer of a place. He called on universities to "get out around the world and market this".
Mr Cameron said: "What we have managed to achieve is exactly what we wanted to achieve, which is the numbers of university students going up, the number of bogus colleges eradicated and the numbers overall coming down.
"I actually believe we have completely got the right policy."
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