Less than 1% of small boat arrivals returned home since 2020 – as cost of Bibby Stockholm revealed
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 Johnson has accused the Home Office of being ‘disrespectful’
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.”
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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.
The Bibby Stockholm barge is being used to house asylum seekers off the Dorset coast
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
Rishi Sunak apologises to infected blood scandal victims and says it is ‘day of shame for British state’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has offered a “wholehearted and unequivocal” apology to the victims of the infected blood scandal, saying it was a “day of shame for the British state”.
Mr Sunak said the findings of the Infected Blood Inquiry’s final report should “shake our nation to its core”, as he promised to pay “comprehensive compensation to those infected and those affected”, adding: “Whatever it costs to deliver this scheme, we will pay it.”
The report from the inquiry’s chair Sir Brian Langstaff blamed “successive governments, the NHS, and blood services” for failures that led to 30,000 people being “knowingly” infected with either HIV or Hepatitis C through blood products. Around 3,000 people have now died.
The prime minister said for any government apology to be “meaningful”, it had to be “accompanied by action”.
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Speaking in the Commons, Mr Sunak called it a “calamity”, saying the report showed a “decades-long moral failure at the heart of our national life”, as he condemned the actions of the NHS, civil service and ministers – “institutions in which we place our trust failed in the most harrowing and devastating way”.
The prime minister said they “failed this country”, adding: “Time and again, people in positions of power and trust had the chance to stop the transmission of those infections. Time and again, they failed to do so.
“I want to make a whole-hearted and unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice.”
Victims and campaigners outside Central Hall in Westminster.
Pic: PA
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Pointing to key findings in the report – from the destruction of documents through to failures over screening – Mr Sunak said there had been “layer upon layer of hurt endured across decades”.
He also apologised for the “institutional refusal to face up to these failings and worse, to deny and even attempt to cover them up”, adding: “This is an apology from the state to every single person impacted by this scandal.
“It did not have to be this way. It should never have been this way. And on behalf of this and every government stretching back to the 1970s, I am truly sorry.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also apologised for his party’s part in the scandal, telling the Commons: “I want to acknowledge to every single person who has suffered that in addition to all of the other failings, politics itself failed you.
“That failure applies to all parties, including my own. There is only one word, sorry.”
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Infected blood victims ‘betrayed’ by NHS
In his report, released earlier on Monday, Sir Brian issued 12 recommendations – including an immediate compensation scheme and ensuring anyone who received a blood transfusion before 1996 was urgently tested for Hepatitis C.
He also called for compensation – something Mr Sunak said would come and would be outlined in the Commons on Tuesday.
But speaking to Sky News’ Sarah-Jane Mee, he warned the “disaster” of the scandal still wasn’t over, saying: “More than 3,000 have died, and deaths keep on happening week after week.
“I’d like people to take away the fact that this is not just something which happened. It is happening.”
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Inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff spoke to Sky’s Sarah-Jane Mee.
Sir Brian said what had happened to the victims was “no accident”, adding: “People put their trust in the doctors and the government to keep them safe. That trust was betrayed.
“And then the government compounded the agony by repeatedly saying that no wrong had been done.”
But he hoped the report would ensure “these mistakes are not repeated”.
He told Sky News: “We don’t want another 30,000 people to go into hospital and come out with infections which were avoidable, which are life-shattering, which were no accident.
“And we don’t want the government to end up being defensive about them – but instead to be candid [and] forthcoming in the ways which I’ve just suggested.”
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