Labour piles £15m into deportation deals for small boat migrants in 11 countries (2024)

The Home Office is spending £15m on returns partnerships with 11 countries to boost the number of deportations of small boat migrants, The Independent can reveal.

It comes after 12 people died on Tuesday, including six children and a pregnant woman, in an attempted crossing of the English Channel, the deadliest crossing attempt in the year to date.

The department is looking for charities and non-profit organisations to support migrants with reintegration when they have been sent back to their home countries.

Under a contract published last month, the government will spend £5m each year with charities offering failed asylum seekers and those with no right to remain in the UK help such as accommodation and cash.

The money will also provide food packages, assistance with family tracing and reunification, mental health and employment support, and transportation to onward destinations in an individual’s home country.

The countries included are Albania, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

Currently, citizens from each of the countries can be returned if their asylum claims are rejected by British authorities, but many have long records of human rights violations, including Iraq.

There, Human Rights Watch has identified flaws in the justice system that deny defendants due process and a fair trial, discriminatory legal norms disproportionately impacting LGBT+ people, women, children and minorities, and inadequate provision of government services remain key areas of concern.

The organisation has also criticised Zimbabwe’s repression of civil society and said the government is not “taking any meaningful steps to uphold rights and ensure justice for serious past abuses”.

The department hopes that by supporting the reintegration of those who Britain deports from the UK, migrants will be better protected and will not be encouraged to attempt to return to the country.

The contract, seen by The Independent, states the money will “support the Home Office’s key priorities of tackling illegal migration, removing those with no right to be here, and protecting the vulnerable”.

It comes as the government is increasing detention spaces to support the higher pace of removals including reopening and adding 290 beds across immigration removal centres at Campsfield and Haslar.

Ministers hope the increase will ensure there is additional capacity for more enforcement and returns and act as a deterrent to future small boat migrants.

More than 19,000 migrants have arrived in Britain by crossing the English Channel in small boats so far this year – with more than 7,000 of those having made the journey since Labour came to power in July.

The new government scrapped the Conservative government’s Rwanda deportation scheme, which had cost taxpayers £700m and saw only four volunteers sent to the east African nation.

Instead, it is ploughing money into a Border Security Command to tackle the smuggling gangs running the small boat trade and investing in speeding up detentions and returns.

A Labour spokesperson said: “As the home secretary announced last week, the government is planning to deliver a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK and ensure the rules are respected and enforced.

“The Conservatives left us with a £6.4bn overspend on the asylum budget, £8m a day being spent on hotels and four volunteers having been flown to Rwanda, rather than getting on with the job.

“The home secretary is sorting out the mess they left behind and that means continued international cooperation with partner nations, and working closely with a number of countries across the globe as part of the mission to end irregular migration.”

The party hopes it will serve as a contrast with the Conservative government and be seen as part of a drive to implement practical border control solutions rather than the “gimmicks” they accused Rishi Sunak and a slew of former home secretaries of pursuing.

The newly elected Labour MP for Dover Mike Tapp, who has worked closely with Yvette Cooper, told The Independent: “As the home secretary announced recently, the government is planning to deliver a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK, something that is increasingly important given the dire inheritance that the Tories left us in the asylum and migration system.

“This is a practical measure and shows that the Labour government is interested in results and a controlled system that Britain deserves, not the gimmicks that saw the Tory government spending huge amounts of taxpayer money with little to show for it.”