In Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s first full year in office, the number of asylum seekers removed by the government dropped by nearly half compared to 2016, when the British public voted to leave the European Union, in large part in response to mass migration.
At the beginning of 2023, after being installed in Downing Street against the ballot-expressed wishes of the Conservative Party membership, Prime Minister Sunak vowed that his government would finally take back control of the nation’s borders.
However, under his watch legal immigration soared to record highs, tens of thousands of mostly military-age males flooded across the English Channel, and a record high of 51,000 migrants were granted asylum.
According to a report from The Telegraph, the government has also failed in terms of the removal of unsuccessful asylum seekers and foreign criminals. Home Office figures analysed by the broadsheet showed the number of foreign offenders and failed asylum seekers either removed by the government or who voluntarily left the country fell by nearly 50 per cent over the past seven years, with just 24,000 removals last year compared to 40,000 in 2016.
This comes after it was revealed last month that just one per cent of illegal boat migrants who have crossed the English Channel from France have been removed since 2020, with just 1,182 of the 111,833 migrants being removed by the government.
Even when looking at Albanians who crossed the Channel, who theoretically should be easier to deport back to their country given the deal struck between the UK and Albania on migrant returns, just five per cent were removed last year.
It comes as Sunak’s government has attempted to convince the public that its policies were effective, boasting, for example, that the Home Office was able to clear (most of) the backlog of asylum seeker requests.
However, the government faced criticisms from the left and the right, with the left arguing that thousands of cases were considered closed in an attempt to “fiddle” the numbers and achieve a win.
On the right, Brexit leader Nigel Farage, among others, lambasted the government for seemingly rushing through asylum cases and granting asylum to a record 51,000 foreigners last year.
Meanwhile, the government has also taken credit for a 36 per cent decline in illegal crossings over the previous year, which happened to be the highest on record. An estimated 29,437 illegals are believed to have crossed the English Channel in 2023, compared to 45,774 in the previous year.
Despite the reduction, last year still saw the second-highest number of boat migrants make the journey in recorded history, edging out 2021 when 28,526 made the illegal journey.
Critics have also claimed that some of this rejection was merely a result of poor weather in the waterway, however, the government has claimed that there were a similar number of clear sailing days in 2023 as there were in the year before.
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