By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:24 PM on 27th October 2009

Censored: Concerns about links between high migration and crime were removed from a Labour report

Concerns about possible links between mass immigration and crime were removed from a Government immigration policy document, it was revealed today.

Initial drafts of the controversial Cabinet Office report noted that there was a risk that organised criminals could exploit a rise in migration.

But the claims were removed from the published version of the document, which went on to become a landmark in terms of Labour's immigration policy.

The revelations in today's London Evening Standard are the latest twist in the row over the report by the Performance and Innovation Unit in 2001.

They will fuel calls for an official inquiry into the paper, which allegedly claimed mass immigration would make Britain more multicultural and allow Labour to portray the Tories as racists.

Former Labour adviser Andrew Neather has claimed the Government opened up Britain's borders in part to try to humiliate Right-wing opponents of immigration.

The PIU, a think-tank originally set up by Tony Blair, has been criticised for painting too positive a picture of mass immigration in the 2001 report.

Drafts seen by the Standard reveal it was revised several times with paragraphs detailing the possible risks removed.

An entire section entitled 'Criminal behaviour' was allegedly removed because Downing Street was 'nervous' it would be seized on by critics.

Another passage proposing a cross-government communications strategy on migration to inspire a more positive public attitude to it was also pulled.

The draft also spoke of Britain's 'positively shameful' record towards Jews who fled the Nazis.

Racism towards black migrants had come 'not just from extremists or working class communities, but from politicians and policy-makers at the highest level', it added.

These inflammatory claims were not included when the report was released.

* The growing rate of open-door migration: Number of new arrivals has surged by 50% under Labour

The section on crime, which was later omitted, had warned: 'Migration has opened up new opportunities for organised crime.'

However, it continued that migrants were not more likely to be criminals despite more foreign nationals ending up in prison.

This was down to foreign visitors being held at airports and ports for drug smuggling and not about migrants looking to settle in the UK, the report said.

But it added: 'There is emerging evidence that the circumstances in which asylum seekers are living is leading to criminal offences, including fights and begging.'

The Cabinet Office denied any political pressure was put on the authors of the report.

A spokesman said: 'Objectivity and impartiality have always been core values of the civil service.'