Keir Starmer is relying on stronger ties with the EU to stop the boats (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer has “nowhere to send failed asylum seekers” despite rising fury over the tiny number of Channel migrants being deported, critics have warned.
The Prime Minister repeatedly insisted during the General Election campaign that he wants to return more small boat arrivals.
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But new Home Office figures have revealed just 3% - 3,788 – have been deported since the crisis began in 2018, with the number falling this year compared to the final quarter of 2023.
And the scrapping of the Rwanda scheme has intensified fears it is now far harder to remove failed asylum seekers.
Just 3% of Channel migrants have been deported (Image: Getty)
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly MP said: “They have ditched our deterrent, have no clear plan to smash the gangs, have nowhere to send failed asylum seekers who they can't return, have failed to hire anyone to run their phantom border command, and are already planning to roll over for the EU and open our borders."
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New Home Office figures show 2,336 people were deported in the year to June.
But 89% of them were Albanian nationals, returned under an agreement signed by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in December 2022.
During a television debate, Sir Keir repeatedly dodged questions on what he would do with migrants from Iran, Syria and Afghanistan – three of the top five cohorts among small boat arrivals.
Tory leadership hopeful Mel Stride added: “We must urgently ramp up the numbers being removed from the UK - that is the best and only effective deterrent to stop people coming here illegally and risking their lives.
“Labour have said they want to achieve the same rate of enforced deportations as the number achieved in 2018, which would require only around 9,000 this year.
“This would not scratch the surface.
“As a minimum they should be aiming to reach the numbers being achieved 20 years ago when enforced removals were running at around 20,000 per year.
“They cannot commit to that level of ambition because they have no credible alternative to the Rwanda plan.
“People will continue to come because they know Labour’s approach means they have nowhere to send them.”
The UK's asylum backlog dropped by almost a third in a year - but started to creep up again in the spring.
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Home Office figures show a total of 118,882 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2024, down by 32% from 175,457 at the end of June 2023, which was the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
But the latest total is up slightly from the 118,329 waiting to be dealt with at the end of March this year, indicating a rise in the last three months of the 12-month period.
The number of asylum seekers waiting more than six months for an initial decision stood at 76,268 at the end of June, down 46% from the record 139,961 at the end of June 2023.
And new figures also show the number of migrants living in hotel rooms has dropped below 30,000 – down from a record of 56,042 in September 2023.
Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick previously announced he would begin closing asylum hotels.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper – after Labour won the General Election – then effectively announced an "asylum amnesty" and confirmed thousands of people would be moved into rental accommodation.
But Ms Cooper, announcing “new measures to strengthen border security”, said she wants to “achieve the highest rate of removals” and deport 14,000 migrants by the end of the year.
She has ordered a “surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity” and will target migrants who have overstayed their visas and failed asylum seekers from “lower grant rate” countries such as Albania, Iraq, Turkey, Nigeria and Pakistan.
The Home Office said it wants to “build” on nine successful deportation flights in the past six weeks, “including the largest-ever chartered return flight”. The Daily Express understands details of this operation have not been publicised because the receiving country wanted to avoid domestic criticism.
Officials said 300 staff are being redeployed to increase the removal of failed asylum seekers.
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Responding to today’s immigration stats, Seema Malhotra, Minister for Migration and Citizenship, said: “Our new Border Security Command is tackling the problem of small boat crossings at source.
“Additional specialist investigators are already working right across Europe and beyond to dismantle, disrupt and destroy the criminal gang networks profiting from this vile trade in human misery.
“We have put substantial additional resource into a new returns programme to ensure thousands more people with no right to be in the UK are removed.”