Just Two Illegal Boat Migrants Sent Back to EU from Britain Since Last Year

While over 45,000 illegal migrants have arrived on British shores since last year, the government could only successfully return a total of two illegals back to the continent during the same time span, The Telegraph reports.

In 2021, the post-Brexit government in Westminster amended immigration law to allow the Home Office to classify alleged asylum seekers as “inadmissible” if they had travelled through a safe country prior to reaching the UK. This would apply to almost all Channel migrants, given that the overwhelming majority set sail from the coasts of France, a safe, first-world, EU nation.

However, since June of last year, the government has failed to designate any illegals as inadmissible and only successfully deported two migrants back to the EU, Home Office figures showed. In total, since the updated rules were introduced, only 83 asylum seekers were given an inadmissible decision, and only 23 were sent back to Europe, while 93,500 illegals arrived.

Prior to leaving the European Union, the UK was a part of the Dublin regulations that govern the return of migrants to countries within the bloc. However, following Brexit, Britain left the scheme and the EU has so far been unwilling to negotiate a returns policy.

Conservatives have accused the French government of Emmanuel Macron of holding up talks, claiming that he is seeking to punish the UK for leaving the EU, while at the same time unloading the cost of migrants onto the British.

During the negotiations for the payoff, President Macron steadfastly refused to include a returns policy part of the deal, dubiously claiming that it must be negotiated at the EU level.

Despite the intransigence of the Europeans on the issue of returns, London has so far been unwilling to use the Border Force — or indeed the Royal Navy — to return migrant boats to the French coast, rather than escort them to Dover as is typically the case.

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