Home Secretary says rules about who can make their home in Britain have not been enforced for ‘far too long’.
Yvette Cooper has made deporting foreign criminals a priority (Image: Getty)
The number of people who have no right to live in the UK who are forcibly returned to their home countries has jumped by almost a fifth since the election.
There were 2,590 “enforced returns” between July 5 and October 28 – up from 2,170 in the same period last year.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said rules governing who can live in the UK had to be “respected and enforced” and “that hasn’t happened for far too long”.
She said: “We said we would increase returns for foreign national criminals and those with no right to be here and now that’s exactly what we are doing. There have been nearly 10,000 returns since the election and we’re working with other governments and law enforcement to make it happen.
“The Tories left the asylum system in a total mess, so step by step we are sorting out their chaos.”
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The Government claims the “three biggest returns flights in the UK’s history” have taken place, with 629 people deported on these.
There have been more than 25 bespoke returns flights since July 5, returning people to countries including Albania, Poland, Romania and Vietnam, as well as the first chartered return flight to East Timor.
Ms Cooper has met with her Nigerian counterpart to discuss returns and intelligence-sharing in the fight against organised crime – the first of its kind in nearly four years.
Tackling illegal immigration has become a key issue in international relations.
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French mayors have called for the deal which allows the UK to perform immigration checks in Calais to be axed.
The mayors from northern France blame the migrant crisis on Britain’s asylum system and the lack of a crackdown on illegal working.
Sony Clinquart, mayor of Grand-Fort-Philippe, has complained the border “doesn’t exist because the British authorities accept all the migrants who arrive”.
Altogether, the latest figures show that 9,400 people with no legal right to be in the UK have been returned to their home countries since the election, including both voluntary and enforced removals.
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