Deportations are lowest on record

PRITI Patel was under pressure to boost immigration laws last night after deportations plunged to the lowest on record.

The number of illegal immigrants, visa overstayers and foreign criminals booted out of the UK fell by a third last year, according to figures released by the Home Office.

The news comes as it emerged a record 5,000 migrants crossed the Channel so far in 2020 – more than twice the 1,900 recorded last year. Several MPs have called for more boats to be turned back to France. Urging a crackdown,

Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense Group of Tory MPs, said the Home Secretary needed Parliament’s support ‘to deliver what the public expect – a radical change of the law on asylum and immigration’.

He told The Mail on Sunday that legislation was needed to tackle the problem of lawyers encouraging migrants to ‘game the system’ by appealing against their deportation.

The return of 5,304 foreign nationals was enforced in the 12 months to June, down 34 per cent from 8,059 the previous year – the lowest number since records began in 2004.

Alp Mehmet, of the pressure group Migration Watch UK, said: ‘The Home Office has been doing less and less to return people, and even when they have jumped through hoops, their efforts have been thwarted in the courts.’

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘Despite the pandemic... we have been able to continue a limited number of enforced removals. We are working at pace to increase the numbers.’