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The number of EU citizens coming to the UK for work has plunged by more than half since the 2016 vote for Brexit .

Official figures today show 92,000 EU citizens arrived in the UK for work in the year to March 2019.

That was less than half the peak of around 190,000 in the months leading up to the EU referendum - and is similar to a level seen in 2012.

Overall there are still more EU citizens coming to the UK than leaving - and including the rest of the world overall net migration is broadly steady.

But net migration from the EU has fallen sharply since 2016, from a peak of 189,000 in 2016 to 59,000 now, and more people are leaving than arriving from eight Eastern European countries.

(Image: PA)

The eight nations from which the flow has reversed are Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

At their peak in 2015, 51,000 more people came to the UK than left from these eight countries. Now 7,000 more people are leaving than arriving.

The figures come after care home and farming chiefs warned of a shortage of workers if the UK crashes out of the EU in a no-deal Brexit on October 31.

Matthew Fell, UK policy director for the Confederation of British Industry, said today: "Skills shortages are getting worse.

“Business understands that free movement is ending, but it marks a huge change in the way firms access skills and labour. They’ll need proper time to adapt to a new system.

“The announcement that Free Movement will end immediately in a ‘no deal’ has left employers and their employees asking fundamental questions about what this means for them. They urgently need this clarified.”

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: "Yet again this data shows how unworkable the government's reactionary numerical migration targets are.

"Now the Tories want to make this even worse by excluding all underpaid workers, and insist on calling them unskilled.

"This would do enormous damage to our public services, including the NHS, as well as to UK industry."

(Image: PA)

Home Secretary Priti Patel is working on tougher plans to end freedom of movement on day one for EU citizens.

But that has lead to fears of injustice for EU citizens who have a right to stay in the UK, but can't prove they were here before the cut-off date.

Jeremy Corbyn suggested the situation could become a 'Windrush on steroids'.

EU citizens who already live in Britain before October 31 have a right to remain, and have until December 2020 to register for "settled" or "pre-settled" status.

More than 2million EU citizens have yet to register with the Home Office.

Overall, net-migration is still adding to the UK population, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

An estimated 226,000 more people moved to the UK than left in the year to March.

There has been a fall in the number of people coming to the UK to work, but a steady increase in the number of people moving here to study.