Home Office Fails to Deport 1,500 Illegal Migrants Despite Brexit Promises

Demonstrators gather for a march calling for the British parliament to welcome refugees in
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty
Kurt Zindulka

The UK Home Office has failed to deport over 1,500 illegal migrants who were deemed to have travelled through safe countries prior to reaching Britain, despite Brexit promises from the government to remove such aliens.

Following the end of the Brexit transition period at the beginning of the year, the government introduced a series of “inadmissibility” asylum regulations which would give the Home Office the ability to turn down asylum claims from migrants who could have applied for refugee status in a “safe third country” before coming to Britain.

The intent of the regulations was to decrease incentives for migrants to travel across the English Channel from France, a safe and prosperous nation, where under international law they should have applied for asylum status.

Since Brexit, the Home Office has handed out 1,503 “notices of intent” to deport these type of illegal migrants, however, none have been removed from the country, according to The Times.

The report also noted that there were a record low number of foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers successfully deported last year, with just 3,327 deportations last year, less than half the figure from the year before.

The Home Office has attempted to blame the dramatic decrease in deportations on the Chinese coronavirus crisis, however, removals have been declining relatively steadily since 2013.

It was also revealed that the number of so-called “destitute” migrants has risen by 300 per cent over the previous year, with 10,294 migrants receiving section 98 government support. This includes taxpayer-funded accommodation and a weekly stipend of £38.

Since last year’s banner year for illegal boat migration, the government has taken to housing migrants in hotels and former army facilities across the country as services were overwhelmed.

At present, there are some 61,241 asylum seekers receiving some form of government welfare in Britain, with over 66,000 currently awaiting the result of their asylum claim to be decided upon.

Priti Patel, the UK’s embattled Home Secretary, said on Monday that the British people are “fed up” with the record waves of illegal migrants pouring over the English Channel from France.

“The British public are fed up, they’re absolutely fed up and demoralised with what we have been seeing, and I’ve been very clear to my department — as I have been over the last 12 months — about operational activity from Border Force,” the Home Secretary said.

She also criticised the alleged actions of the Border Force, which reportedly sailed into French territorial waters earlier this month to pick up migrants and ferry them to British soil.

“My own instructions have been very clear with my department and in fact to the commander who oversees these Border Force operations that they should not be going into French territorial waters. That is absolutely wrong and there is now an investigation into that,” Patel said.

Responding to Patel’s comments, Brexit leader Nigel Farage said: “They are absolutely fed up — with all of her empty promises on illegal migration since 2019.”

All of the areas of failure Patel highlighted are, after all, in her area of control as Britain’s home secretary.

On Monday, another 93 illegal migrants were brought ashore at the Port of Dover, taking the total so far this year to over 4,500, more than double the numbers seen at this time last year.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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