Nearly 60,000 migrants removed and deported since election, Home Office says as it releases new returns flight footage
The Home Office has announced that nearly 60,000 illegal migrants and criminals have been removed or deported since the election, with the Government releasing new footage from a return flight.
Listen to this article
More than 15,000 people were removed since July 2024, a 45 per cent hike on the same timescale before Labour's landslide win.
Additionally, the Home Office has confirmed that 43,000 people left voluntarily after being told they were in the UK illegally.
Amid the release of the figures, a new video of a return flight has been published.
Read more: Government launches new immigration TikTok in bid to tackle Nigel Farage on social media
The footage shows nearly 50 foreign national offenders and failed asylum seekers being escorted onto a plane and sent back to Eastern Europe.
The total sentences handed down to the foreign national offenders amounted to 69 years, 8 months and 28 days.
This is for a range of offences including drugs, fraud, theft and possession of weapons.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has pledged to "scale up" the number of deportations even further - but the Government is still facing mounting pressure over immigration.
More than 65,000 people have arrived in the UK by crossing the English Channel alone since Sir Keir Starmer became Prime Minister.
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 several countries grappling with migration problems which are pushing for changes in the way the treaty is interpreted, notably in its Article 3 protection against inhuman 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.
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."
Ms Mahmood is also aiming to reduce Britain’s attractiveness to migrants, and has reportedly been inspired by the Danish system, which initially only grants refugees a two-year temporary stay.
A Home Office source said at the time: "Today becoming a refugee equals a lifetime of protection in Britain. Mahmood will change that — making refugee status temporary and subject to regular review.
"The moment your home country is safe to return to, you will be removed."