The PM is under fire as it was revealed that taxpayers are footing the £112 daily bill it costs to house migrants in detention centres, while some stay there for up to three years. Rishi Sunak has been blasted after new stats revealed that nearly four in five migrants held in detention centres were released, rather than deported in 2022.
Nearly 80 percent of those held in immigration detention centres were released into UK communities – with half as many deported as the average across 2015-2019. Migrants held in such centres are supposed to be there ahead of being deported – but the annual report by the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) found the majority were just being released back into the country.
Co-Deputy leader of Reform UK Ben Habib, reacting to the report, said it was “more evidence of [Mr Sunak’s] failed migration ‘policy’”
He told Express.co.uk: “Sunak and his colleagues insist on not policing our borders and instead relying on deportation as their answer to illegal entry. That would all be fine and dandy if we did in fact detain and deport people. We do not.”
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The former MEP added the UK “will not get a grip of illegal migration unless and until we recognise that border control means controlling borders. The boats must be stopped in the Channel and sent back to France.
“We have all the international law required to conduct this simple and obviously workable solution. The problem here is not the European Convention on Human Rights but our governing class, who do not see the territorial integrity of the UK as important.”
The government’s summary of migration data between 2015 and 2019 suggests a higher proportion of people were deported than in 2022, according to the Guardian. An average of 44 percent were deported in this time frame – twice as many as the 22 percent deported in 2022.
People were also kept in the centres for longer than previous years, with one even kept there for more than three years. The cost of detention is £112.85, according to the Home Office.
It comes after Mr Sunak dodged a potential Tory uprising over the second reading of his controversial Rwanda plan in Parliament last week. The policy, which saw the PM threatened with rebellion from the so-called “Five Families” Conservative pressure groups, seeks to ship illegal migrants to the southeast African country. While it successfully passed its second reading in the Commons on Tuesday, there remains a long journey ahead for the Rwanda plan.
The government has pledged to increase the UK’s capacity to hold people in immigration detention centres to prepare for the scheme to finally come to fruition. The Rwanda plan will still need to pass further readings in the Commons in January before hitting the House of Lords. Speaking to the Times, a source claimed a “bloodbath” awaits the PM if he is unable to see it through.
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The newest draft of the bill appears to have split the Conservative Party, with right-wing factions fearing it would still allow the plan to be shot down by legal challenges to deportation under the ECHR. Immigration minister Robert Jenrick resigned earlier this month following a row with the PM over this draft.
Meanwhile, the moderate One Nation caucus of Conservative MPs are less supportive of anything that would contravene international law, placing the PM in a difficult position to maintain a majority support of his party.
Reform UK leader Richard Tice this week issued a withering assessment of Mr Sunak’s plan to handle huge migration figures. Slamming the Conservative Party’s record on migration, he said: “Post-Brexit they changed the rules, not to tighten and reduce immigration but to open the borders and allow a wholly predictable surge.”
But the one attempt to get the plane to Rwanda off the ground was further criticised by the IMB’s report, which raised concerns about the treatment of vulnerable detainees – seven of which were put on the plane before a last-minute intervention from the ECHR prevented take-off.
The management of the seven was found to be inadequate, “resulting in both unacceptable compromises to men’s safety and their right to timely and effective legal support”.
The national chair of the IMB, Elisabeth Davies, said: “This report evidences another challenging year in immigration detention and highlights the need, now more than ever, for local IMBs to be the eyes and the ears of the general public in places of detention.”
Express.co.uk has contacted No10 for comment on Mr Habib’s remarks.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take the welfare and safety of people in our care very seriously, and are committed to ensuring detention and removal are carried out with dignity and respect. We work to ensure individuals are detained for as short as time as possible while we pursue their removal from the UK back to their home country or a safe third country.
“Robust policies and procedures are in place to safeguard vulnerable people and we remain committed to further improving these where we can.”
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