EU admits total of its illegal migrants entering UK in 2022 was 31% higher than Home Office says

If the extra 31% didn’t come by boat, plane, or train, what did they do? Parachute in?

 

CIBUK and Brexit Facts4EU show a fuller picture of illegal immigration into the UK, using official figures

This week the Government will be laying its new immigration bill before Parliament, in an attempt to reduce the numbers of illegal migrants crossing the English Channel.

Ahead of this, today’s CIBUK report summarises the Home Office numbers for illegal migrants to date, provides some interesting extra information, and highlights the additional 17,000 illegal migrants listed by the EU as having entered the UK in 2022 using all means.

Summary

 

1. Illegal migrants crossing in small boats 2018-2022

 

  • 2018 : 299
  • 2019 : 1,843
  • 2020 : 8,466
  • 2021 : 28,526
  • 2022 : 45,755 (+60.4% increase on 2021)
  • TOTAL : 84,889

[Source: UK Home Office]

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 – click to enlarge

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2. Total illegal migrants entering the UK by all means (including ports and airports), 2022

 

  • Boat migrants : 45,755
  • Other means of entry : 8,335
  • TOTAL : 54,090

[Source: UK Home Office]

 

3. However, the EU’s border agency admits to far more:-

 

  • Home Office data : 54,090
  • EU Frontex data : 71,081 (+31% higher)

 

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 – click to enlarge

 

[Source: UK Home Office and the EU’s Frontex border agency]

How many get returned?

The Government’s proposed legislation this week aims to strengthen the UK’s ability to deport illegal migrants, despite there being no attempt to derogate from the European Convention on Human Rights. It was judgement by a sole (anonymous) judge in the ECHR’s court which prevented deportations to Rwanda last year.

 

 

CIBUK has analysed the numbers of deportations from the UK. The chart below shows actual numbers reported by the Home Office since 2004. This therefore covers the period of Labour, Coalition, and Conservative governments, up until Sept 2022 (the latest data available).

Summary

 

4. Total number of enforced deportations of illegal migrants from the UK

 

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2023 – click to enlarge

[Source: UK Home Office]

In the year ending September 2022, there were 3,531 enforced returns, which represents only 49% of the deportations in the 2019 pre-pandemic year. The vast majority of enforced returns in the year ending September 2022 were of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) and around a half (49%) were EU nationals.

FNO returns decreased between 2016 and 2020. During this time returns of EU nationals were almost double that of non-EU nationals.

Observations

Most people are aware that 46,000 illegal boat migrants crossed the English Channel last year. Fewer will know that the total number of illegal migrants reported by the Home Office was in fact 54,000, via all routes. And there have been no reports showing the EU’s Frontex (border agency) figure of 71,000 illegal migrants crossing from the EU to the UK in 2022.

In today’s report we have presented a fuller picture for the British public. In the next couple of days the Government is expected to present its latest immigration bill aimed at reducing the opportunity for the immigration system to be finessed by ‘open border’ lawyers. This is not before time. It remains to be seen, however, whether this bill – should it eventually become law – will make any difference to the legal challenges. With no plans to derogate from the ECHR, it seems optimistic to think this will succeed.

CIBUK is non-partisan. One of the charts we have published above clearly shows that this problem has not been dealt with by either Labour, Coalition, or Conservative governments over decades.

The issue of illegal immigration is of course only part of the story. Boat migrants may now hit the headlines but as we have reported before, the problems of excess legal immigration far outweigh the boat migrant narrative.

We leave it up to readers to comment on this whole issue but it’s abundantly clear to us that a government that can get a grip of this issue is far more likely to do well at the next general election.

The original article can be found here.

 

This report has been co-published with our affiliated organisation, Brexit Facts4EU.Org.

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Main image : montage © Facts4EU.Org 2023