UK removed only 21 inadmissible asylum seekers to safe third countries in 18 months

Britain forcibly removed just 21 “inadmissible” asylum seekers to “safe third countries” in the first 18 months after it formally left the European Union, new data showed, as the influx of migrants illegally reaching the UK’s shores continued.

The government said close to 16,000 asylum seekers whose claims were declared “inadmissible” between January 1, 2021 and the end of June this year, were considered for removal. But only 21 people were removed to countries including Ireland, Germany, Italy and Spain, after a key EU transfer deal in Brexit.

According to an Independent report, the government claimed it would replace the scheme with bilateral agreements, but none have been struck with EU nations.

Asylum seekers, who have reached the UK after travelling through and spending time in safe third countries where they could have asked for protection, are declared “inadmissible” for consideration.

Official Home Office guidance makes it clear that an asylum seeker who “spent a couple of weeks in Brussels staying with friends while trying to find an agent to bring them illegally to the UK” could be declared inadmissible.

Officials should check for “material in their belongings such as receipts and tickets” from shops and transport, it says.

Some 63,089 asylum applications, relating to 75,181 people, were made in the year ending June 2022 and the number was the highest for a one-year period in almost two decades.

Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesperson, told the Independent that people who came to the UK having fled war or persecution should be welcomed with compassion.

He said they should not be kept waiting for months while their claims were processed.

“As this backlog shows, the Home Office is not fit for purpose. The government needs to get a grip, but none of the Conservatives’ endless series of cruel proposals will actually solve the dysfunction at the heart of the Home Office,“ Carmichael said.