Only 3% of UK Channel migrants are deported

DESPITE thousands of asylum applications being rejected, just three per cent of migrants who entered the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats have been deported, Home Office figures reveal.

- Jon Austin and David Maddox

From the start of the crisis in 2018 to the end of January this year, 10,828 people made the dangerous crossing. But during the same period just 290 were returned to Europe.

The Government has announced it will end taxpayer support for failed asylum seekers, including accommodation and living costs, from tomorrow as part of the wind-down of Covid-19 restrictions.

From March last year help had been offered to failed asylum seekers who could not leave the country because of the pandemic.

But now they will be expected to return to their countries of origin.