Only 105 Failed Asylum Seekers Returned to the EU Last Year

Just over one per cent of failed asylum seekers were returned to European Union countries from Britain last year under the bloc’s resettlement scheme, which was still in effect until the first of January.

In the year leading up to the UK’s official departure from the European Union, only 105 of 8,502 attempts were successful in deporting illegal migrants back to the EU. Just 20 failed asylum seekers were returned to France, despite it being a banner year for illegal boat migration coming from the other side of the English Channel.

Conversely, under the EU asylum application regime, the Dublin III Regulation — which the UK was still bound by until the begging of this year — Britain took in nearly nine times as many asylum seekers from Europe, with 882 accepted into the country.

The Dublin asylum standards mandate that migrants claim asylum in the first safe country they arrive in, meaning that most claims for asylum in Britain would be spurious. However, the rules also provide a family reunification clause, which made up many of the asylum seeker transfer requests from EU countries.

Other provisions within the EU regulation made it difficult to actually enforce, such as the requirement that return applications be made within the first six months of a migrants arrival in the country.

The Home Office pointed to migrants and human rights lawyers launching last-minute asylum claims to “game” the system and extend the process past the six-month limit.

From January 1st, the Dublin agreement has ceased to apply to the UK, allowing the government to pass legislation that prevents migrants caught at sea from applying for asylum once brought ashore in Britain.

Yet, the government has failed to come to a returns agreement with the EU or any individual member state, meaning that the government currently has no mechanism to return migrants to the continent. Since Brexit, zero illegal immigrants have been successfully deported by Priti Patel’s Home Office.