Home Office shares footage of fifty international criminals and failed asylum seekers boarding deportation flight to Eastern Europe

The Home Office has shared footage of nearly 50 foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers being flown out of the UK as it boasted of carrying out more than 15,000  deportations since the election.

Officials said the flight went to a country in Eastern Europe, with those onboard sentenced to a total of more than 69 years for a range of crimes including drugs, fraud, theft and weapons offences. 

Sharing the footage, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said it was evidence that Labour had managed to ‘scale up removals of illegal immigrants’ and said 60,000 had left the country since the start of the Starmer government. 

Out of the total, 43,000 people left voluntarily after being told they were in the UK illegally – with many likely taking advantage of a £3,000 payment under the Voluntary Returns Service.

Critics would also point out that there are more than 10,700 foreign national inmates in prisons in England and Wales – according to the latest figures – representing 12.3 per cent of the total jail population. 

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Labour are not fooling anyone. They are barely removing any small boat immigrants – a mere 5 per cent, hence why the boats keep coming.

‘Labour are padding out the figures by bundling in voluntary returns, which make up the vast majority of returns.’

Officials said the flight went to a country in Eastern Europe, with those onboard sentenced to a total of more than 69 years for a range of crimes including drugs, fraud and theft 

The Home Office said the flight included failed asylum seekers as well as foreign criminals 

Sharing the footage, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood (pictured on Wednesday) said it was evidence Labour had managed to ‘scale up removals of illegal immigrants’

Today, Ms Mahmood announced she had struck a deal with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and Namibia to take back foreign criminals and illegal migrants after threatening to impose visa restrictions. 

However, despite today’s agreement just 3,000 people from the three countries will be eligible to be removed or deported.  

The Government is still facing mounting pressure over immigration, with more than 65,000 people arriving into Britain by crossing the Channel alone since Sir Keir became Prime Minister.

Earlier this week, Ms Mahmood said there is no guarantee the number of small boat crossings will fall by this time next year.

The Home Office said it will bring in legislation to stop illegal immigrants ‘gaming the system’ by using the European Convention on Human Rights to appeal against their removal.

The UK is among a number of countries grappling with migration problems which are pushing for changes in the way the treaty is interpreted, notably in its Article 3 protection against inhumane or degrading treatment and the Article 8 right to a family life.

Both articles have been used to prevent people with no right to be in the UK being sent back to their home countries.

Illegal migrants will also be restricted to a single route of appeal, the Home Office outlined. 

Ms Mahmood said: ‘I vowed to scale up removals of illegal migrants – and we have. 

‘However, we must go further to remove those that have no right to be in our country. I will do whatever it takes to restore order and control.’

The Government has also pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament by opting for more basic accommodation like military sites instead.

Fewer than 200 asylum accommodation hotels remain in use, the Government said, compared with a peak of 400 under the previous government.

However, Labour’s flagship ‘one in, one out’ deal with France has come in for criticism after it emerged that Britain has so far accepted more migrants than it has sent back.

Official figures show that the UK has returned 193 people who crossed the Channel in small boats in the first two months of the much-vaunted scheme.

Yet over the same period, September to December, 195 asylum-seekers who have not previously tried to arrive illegally have been allowed to come here from France under the scheme. 

The Home Office originally said it would involve an ‘equal number’ travelling in each direction.

Ministers hoped the threat of being sent back to France would deter others from making the trip.