JUST 155 of 29,437 boat migrants from last year have been removed

Just 155 migrants who crossed the Channel in small boats last year have been removed from the country, it has been revealed. 

Ministers have repeatedly vowed tough action on those entering the UK illegally, promising they will be removed with no right to return.

But figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show only 155 of the 29,437 migrants who crossed the Channel last year – a paltry 0.5 per cent – have been removed.

The Rwanda scheme, codenamed Operation Vector, began last week, with dawn raids to round up asylum seekers who arrived in small boats.

Groups of men were seen being handcuffed before being taken to immigration removal centres, where they will be held until they can be deported to Africa.

Home Office lawyers are, however, braced for a string of legal challenges, with a leaked Government forecast predicting that 75 per cent of migrants will bring successful judicial reviews to block their removal.

Migrants can prevent their removal if they prove they face a 'real, imminent and foreseeable risk of serious and irreversible harm' in Rwanda.

A total of 711 migrants crossed the Channel last Wednesday, the most in one day so far this year.

The Home Office said it had already removed 26,000 people with no right to be in the UK and 'will get flights to Rwanda off the ground in nine to 11 weeks'.