UK takes 900 EU asylum seekers but only 100 go other way

BRITAIN took in almost 900 asylum seekers from the European Union’s member states last year – but removed just 100 in exchange.

Official data showed 882 claimants were transferred to this country from the Continent under rules set by Brussels.

But only 105 asylum seekers were transferred out of Britain to EU countries under the same measures.

The so-called ‘Dublin regulation’ – which the UK ceased to be part of at the end of the transition period – set out how asylum seekers could be returned to another member state if they had previously claimed refugee status there.

There was a huge discrepancy in the figures even though the UK made record numbers of requests under the measures last year. In what appeared to be a ramping-up of requests by the Home Office ahead of December 31, there were just over 8,502 made to other EU nations urging them to take back asylum seekers.

It can also be disclosed that more than 7,000 failed asylum seekers made fresh claims in the UK last year. The astonishing

‘Vowed to fix broken system’

figure, disclosed to Parliament by immigration minister Chris Philp, showed the scale of the asylum reform faced by Home Secretary Priti Patel. She has vowed to fix Britain’s ‘broken’ asylum system, including streamlining the application process so all legal grounds are submitted at the start of a case.

Mr Philp said in a parliamentary answer that 7,341 submissions were made last year by people who had previously been refused asylum.

More than 60 migrants were intercepted trying to cross the Channel to reach the UK yesterday. Britain’s authorities dealt with three boats carrying a total of 50 people, while the French halted one attempted overnight crossing involving 17 people and returned another boat to France.

The crossings come after a migrant went missing at sea when a boat got into difficulty in the Channel and three others were taken to hospital in France suffering from hypothermia on Tuesday night.