IMMIGRATION may be even higher than figures show because penpushers aren’t picking up all migrants arriving at night – it has emerged.

The Office for National Statistics revealed plans to launch new checks on night-time flights in and out of the UK.

5 Migrants arriving to the UK at night are not included in official statistics Credit: PA:Press Association

Currently, official migration statistics are based on random samples of passengers arriving into Britain between 6am and 10pm.

This sample is then ‘weighted’ to try and give a representative figure for the entire day.

But the ONS yesterday revealed it would run new checks outside of the regular hours to see if it was missing high numbers of students – particularly during the summer.

5 The Office for National Statistics now hopes to launch new checks on night-time flights in and out of the UK Credit: Getty Images

Some 126,000 foreign students arrived in the year to September – with 87,000 from outside the EU.

But Heathrow has 16 flights arriving every day between 4.30am and 6am – largely from south-east Asia.

Alp Mehmet, vice chair of Migration Watch, told the Sun: “The ONS really does have a job on its hands to convince us that their figures are indeed as accurate as they claim.”

The ONS insisted the numbers “missed” during the night would not change overall migration figures because of the accuracy of its modelling.

5 Professor Jonathan Portes says the new ONS checks could show migration is lower than previously thought Credit: Array

But separate figures suggested as many as 40,000 foreign students who arrived in 2015 are ‘unaccounted for’.

Net migration was a whopping 273,000 in 2015-2016.

Jonathan Portes, Professor of Economics at King’s College, London told the Sun the new ONS checks could even show net migration is LOWER than believed – by discovering more students are leaving the country than are currently picked up in the official figures.

Some 7 per cent of flights to non-EU countries also happen at night.

5 Official statistics are currently based on random samples of arrivals between 6am and 10pm Credit: Alamy

Mr Portes told the Sun: “We’ve known for a while that the international passenger survey may not be counting student immigration very well.

“It’s good the ONS are taking action, but the rest of Government needs to get its act together as well.”

As Home Secretary, Prime Minister Theresa May waged a war with ‘bogus colleges’ as she tried to keep a lid on immigration.

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Just weeks after moving into No.10 last summer sources claimed she wanted a new crack down on universities – claiming they have become an easy route into Britain for economic migrants.

Migration Watch argues that as many as a half of non-EU students overstay their visas OR end up living in Britain after coming to study –figures fiercely denied by higher education sector.

The ONS said that of the 112,000 non-EU students who came to Britain to study in 2015 – at least 11,000 were granted valid leave to remain or were granted asylum.

It added that some may have left the via “un-sampled ports” via the soft border in Ireland or on “out of hour flights”.