Less than 1% of small boat arrivals returned home since 2020 – as cost of Bibby Stockholm revealed

Published

1 year ago

December 13, 2023

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Less than 1% of people who have arrived in the UK on small boats since 2020 have been returned to their home country, new statistics reveal.

The numbers showed that when Albanians were taken out of the figures – as the UK has signed a separate returns agreement with the country – just 408 people had been sent home in the past three years, despite 109,117 arriving via Channel crossings, an equivalent of 0.37%.

The government’s new illegal migration minister, Michael Tomlinson, said he wanted to see the return figure “as high as possible”, adding: “I am reading the same chart and, as far as I am concerned the numbers need to be significantly higher than that.”

But he and his colleague, legal migration minister Tom Pursglove, were slammed by the Home Affairs Select Committee for not being across the figures themselves.

During the committee hearing, it was also revealed the cost of housing asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm barge was more than £22m.

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The figures were handed over to the committee late on Tuesday in a letter from Home Office permanent secretary, Sir Matthew Rycroft.

He had appeared in front of the cross-party group of MPs two weeks ago but was attacked for being “disrespectful” by its chair, Dame Diana Johnson, when he struggled to answer questions on the specifics of immigration statistics.

The Labour chair then had to chase Sir Matthew for answers, which only appeared the night before Wednesday’s hearing, and which neither Mr Tomlinson nor Mr Pursglove seemed to be aware of.

Dame Diana put the returns number to the ministers early on in the hearing and they claimed to not recognise that figure.

However, when pressed, they could not give what they believed to be the correct number.

This was the last straw for Dame Diana, who said after the “disaster” of the hearing with Sir Matthew, she expected better.

“I appreciate you are very new in post,” she said. “But equally, this committee is now getting to the point where I think it is incredibly disrespectful in the way the Home Office is treating members of parliament.”

Mr Tomlinson tried to defend himself, saying while he aimed to be “constructive” with the committee, they should put forward “specific questions” ahead of appearances.

But this got short shrift from the chair, who said: “Asking questions on how many people have been returned who came by small boats is not the kind of thing I would expect to have to give notice of to the Home Office for.

“If you come in front of a committee, we are going to ask you those questions, we all know this is a really typical issue, we are all concerned about it, we all want to know.

“You are grown-ups, you are politicians, you have been around, you know what the issues are.”

Sir Matthew’s letter also revealed the exact cost of housing asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm – a total of £22,450,772.

The permanent secretary also said an updated assessment of whether it was “value for money” would be released in the new year.

But Dame Diana said she was “flabbergasted” such an assessment had not taken place already when the vessel is already in use.

Mr Pursglove said the word “updated” was important, insinuating assessments had already taken place.

But pushed for details on that, he again did not have the data, and just said using a barge was “undoubtedly a more cost-effective way” to house people than using hotels.

Speaking after the hearing, Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “Today’s admissions from the Home Office show the truly appalling scale of Tory failure and chaos including a disastrously low level of enforcement in the asylum system.

“We can’t continue with this damaging and costly chaos.”

Politics

Australian regulator asks High Court to allow appeal in Block Earner case

Published

5 hours ago

May 22, 2025

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Australian regulator asks High Court to allow appeal in Block Earner case

Australia’s financial regulator will seek the High Court’s permission to appeal a lower court’s ruling favoring fintech firm Block Earner, which found the company’s crypto-linked fixed-yield earning service is not a financial product.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission said on May 21 that it wants to ask the High Court of Australia to clarify what the definition of a financial product is and clarify the circumstances when an interest-earning product and the conversion of assets from one form to another are regulated.

“The definition of financial product was drafted in a broad and technology-neutral way, and ASIC believes it is in the public interest to clarify this,” the watchdog said.

“This clarification is important as it applies to all financial products and services whether they involve crypto-assets or not.”

On April 22, Federal Court Justices David O’Callaghan, Wendy Abraham and Catherine Button found that Block Earner’s crypto-linked fixed-yield earning product is not a financial product, a managed investment scheme or a derivative under the Corporations Act.

ASIC said the court will consider its application. Special leave is required in an appeal to the High Court, and it’s only granted in cases where it would answer significant legal questions or matters of public interest.

A Block Earner spokesperson told Cointelegraph the matter has now escalated to a “broader legal question” around the definition of a financial product, which extends “well beyond Block Earner, and the crypto sector.”

“We believe the Full Federal Court’s April ruling was a strong and well-reasoned decision that upheld the integrity of our operations,” the spokesperson said. “We remain confident in the soundness of that judgment and will respond to ASIC’s application through the appropriate legal channels.”

Legal saga ongoing since 2022

ASIC first launched legal proceedings against Block Earner in November 2022, arguing the company needed a financial services license to offer its yield product, which was available from March 17, 2022, until the company shut it down on Nov. 16, 2022.

In February 2024, an Australian court initially ruled the fintech firm would need a financial services license to operate its crypto yield-bearing products.

Another June 2024 ruling in Australia’s Federal Court released Block Earner from any financial penalties because it had “acted honestly” and pursued its legal opinions before launching the products, which ASIC appealed.

Block Earner appealed the Federal Court’s decision that it needed a financial services license on July 9, 2024.

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Politics

VanEck to launch Avalanche ecosystem fund

Published

7 hours ago

May 21, 2025

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VanEck to launch Avalanche ecosystem fund

VanEck plans to launch a private digital assets fund in June targeting tokenized Web3 projects built on the Avalanche blockchain network, the asset manager said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.

The VanEck PurposeBuilt Fund, available only to accredited investors, aims to invest in liquid tokens and venture-backed projects across Web3 sectors, including gaming, financial services, payments, and artificial intelligence.

Idle capital will be deployed into Avalanche (AVAX) real-world asset (RWA) products, including tokenized money market funds, VanEck said.

The fund will be managed by the team behind VanEck’s Digital Assets Alpha Fund (DAAF), which oversees more than $100 million in net assets as of May 21.

“The next wave of value in crypto will come from real businesses, not more infrastructure,” Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager for DAAF, said in a statement.

Thematic crypto funds

VanEck’s PurposeBuilt Fund is the latest in a series of funds from the asset manager and rivals designed to offer exposure to projects and companies in fast-growing segments of Web3.

On May 14, VanEck launched a new actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) to invest in stocks and financial instruments providing exposure to the digital economy.

In April, VanEck launched another ETF investing in a passive index of companies operating in the crypto space.

Asset managers such as VanEck are requesting the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) permission to list upward of 70 crypto ETFs.

The wave of ETF filings is in response to US President Donald Trump softening the agency’s regulatory stance toward crypto after Trump took office in January.

Avalanche RWA ecosystem

Avalanche has emerged as a hub for real-world assets (RWAs) and other institutional-oriented crypto projects.

Its interrelated networks, called subnets, allow institutions to run Ethereum-style smart contracts in a controlled environment. On May 16, Solv Protocol launched a yield-bearing Bitcoin token on the Avalanche blockchain, targeting institutional investors

Avalanche has around $1.5 billion in total value locked (TVL) as of May 21, according to data from DefiLlama.

“We’re seeing a shift away from speculative hype toward real utility and sustainable token economies,” John Nahas, chief business officer at Ava Labs, said in a statement.

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Politics

US lawmaker reintroduces bill amid pushback on Trump’s crypto ties

Published

7 hours ago

May 21, 2025

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<div>US lawmaker reintroduces bill amid pushback on Trump's crypto ties</div>

A Democratic representative in the US Congress will support a blockchain bill at a time when many left-leaning lawmakers are blocking crypto-related pieces of legislation due to concerns with President Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.

In a May 21 notice, Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer said he had reintroduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act, a bill that “solidifies that digital asset developers and service providers that do not custody consumer funds are not money transmitters.”Emmer, a Republican, said Democratic Representative Ritchie Torres would co-lead the bill, making it a bipartisan effort in Congress.

“The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act reflects a thoughtful, bipartisan effort to get digital asset policy right,” said Torres. “While similar language was voted down in markup last Congress, we took that feedback seriously and returned with a smarter, sharper framework that protects innovation without compromising oversight.”

Cryptocurrencies, Law, Politics, Congress — *Reintroducing the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act on May 21. Source:* *Tom Emmer*

Representatives of advocacy organizations, including the Crypto Council for Innovation, Solana Policy Institute, Digital Chamber, Coin Center, DeFi Education Fund and Blockchain Association, said they would support the proposed blockchain regulatory bill. It was unclear whether Emmer and Torres had a majority of votes in the House of Representatives for the legislation to pass.

Torres has supported many bills and policies favorable to the crypto industry since assuming office in 2021. Together with Emmer, he has led the Congressional Crypto Caucus to advance crypto-friendly policies in the House since March.

A bipartisan blockchain bill amid memecoin concerns?

Other Democratic House members, including Representative Maxine Waters, have suggested they intend to block any legislation related to crypto and blockchain until Republicans address Trump’s connections to the industry, such as his family’s stake in World Liberty Financial and his TRUMP memecoin. The president is planning to host a dinner with up to 220 people holding the most significant amounts of his memecoin on May 22.

Cointelegraph reached out to Torres’ office for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

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