More than 8,000 Eastern Europeans arrive in Britain every day

Around three million poured into the country in the 12 months to June - an increase of a quarter over the year before.

The Government claims many of the arrivals are simply visiting friends and relatives from the former Eastern Bloc, around 600,000 of whom have moved here permanently since the EU's expansion in May 2004.

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But no accurate record exists of how many of the visitors actually go home.

It is also thought many of the arrivals, around half of whom are from

Poland, are taking advantage of cheap flights with budget airlines to look for work or places to live in Britain before attempting to move here permanently.

The visitors include 210,000 from Romania and Bulgaria, both of which joined the EU at the start of this year.

Some 117,000 from the two countries have come

here since January alone, when they were granted free access to visit.

The number of work permits handed out to Romanians and Bulgarians is limited to 20,000.

But ministers have just begun a consultation on whether to lift the restrictions next year.

Yesterday's figures, published by the Office for National Statistics, suggest that if the limit on work permits is lifted, tens of thousands are likely to move here permanently.

One possibility is they are already investigating the jobs market ahead of any decision by the Government.

The tourist board VisitBritain, however, welcomed the figures.

It said Eastern European tourists are making a major contribution to the economy, with Poles alone spending more than £ 470million last year.

The number of visitors from Poland, at around 1.5million, now outstrips arrivals from Australia and Japan combined.

As the number of holidaymakers from traditional visitor countries declines, Eastern Europeans are taking their place.

A spokesman for VisitBritain said efforts were being made to market the country to Poles, who have their own dedicated section on the board's website.

He added: "Poland has been one of our "emerging markets" which we have invested in since 2004. We have an office in Hungary, which manages our activities in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic."

Tom Wright, the chief executive of Visit-Britain, said: "More and more of our visitors now come from countries that are less familiar with the full range of experiences available here.

"We must explore evermore creative means if we are to attract them as well as

support visits from more traditional source markets.'

The Home Office insisted the 3,050,000 visits - 8,356 every day - made by Eastern Europeans in the past year was not an indication of overall immigration.

But, until the Government's £1.2billion electronic borders project is completed in 2014, there is no accurate record of how many of them go home.

The number of Eastern Europeans who have registered to work here since May 2004 stands at more than 600,000, not including the Romanians and Bulgarians.

Ministers had predicted only 13,000 a year would arrive.

The influx has placed huge strain on schools, hospitals and housing.

This pressure forced the Home Office to limit the work permits given to Romanians and Bulgarians.

A Home Office spokesman said no decision had been taken on whether to lift the restrictions.

"It remains too early to evaluate the full impact of the accession," he added.