Even as More Migrant Boats Land, 40,000 Un-Deported Failed Asylum Seekers Remain in UK

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 16: Border Force officers go out on patrol on a RIB (Rigid Inflat
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Oliver JJ Lane

The number of failed asylum seekers who should be deported from the United Kingdom has near doubled in five years, and new refugees are arriving into the country every week with 28 individuals known to have landed in Kent overnight.

There are now 39,932 individuals who are “subject to removal action” — otherwise known as failed asylum seekers who should be deported — in the United Kingdom, a figure which has grown from little over 20,000 in 2014. The large number of individuals remain in the country despite having no right to do so, and the government being theoretically obliged to encourage them to leave, or to deport them.

The rise in those subject to deportation in the United Kingdom may be down in part to the fact that fewer individuals are now being deported. British newspaper The Times reports deportations have fallen 42 per cent in the past four years, with a 27 per cent drop of removals from 4,819 to 3,471 in the past 12 months alone.

Overnight, a UK Border Force cutter intercepted two migrant boats in the English Channel, which carried 28 illegals between them. As is customary under British government protocols, the migrants were brought ashore in Dover and given to immigration officials who will then decide whether the individuals caught in the process of breaking into the United Kingdom will be awarded refugee status or added to the rapidly rising number of those denied status, but also not deported.

Crossings of the English Channel by small boat is an emerging trend for illegal migration to the United Kingdom, which in the past has been characterised by people smuggling by freight crossing to Dover, and those overstaying their visas. The BBC reports over 970 people are known to have crossed the Channel this year alone.

On Monday, newly installed UK Home Secretary Priti Patel gave her office 72 hours to create an emergency immigration plan for “immediate implementation”. A government source quoted by the Daily Mail newspaper states these measures will focus on prevention, with Britain supporting French police patrolling their north coast, preventing illegals form setting out on the dangerous journey north at all.

Risks posed to illegals attempting to force entry to the United Kingdom rather than travel by legitimate means was tragically underlined this week when it was revealed an Iraqi male had drowned in the English Channel as he attempted to swim from France to England. The man, who was reported to have been already refused asylum status in Germany was discovered in the southernmost part of the North Sea off the Belgian coast wearing swimming flippers and “covered in fish nets with plastic bottles… to make it more easy to swim for him.”

A spokesman for the UK Home Office said the death of the Iraqi male was tragic and that “Anyone seeking to swim across the Channel or to cross this dangerous stretch of water in a small boat is taking a huge risk.”

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