UK Edition
Illegal immigration ‘crackdown’ nets only 71 prosecutions from 17,000 caught
Government’s claims to be targeting trafficking gangs ring hollow as figures show just 0.4pc of illegal migrants face criminal charges
Only 71 illegal migrants out of 17,000 detected by the Border Force each year are being prosecuted, despite the Government’s claims to be cracking down on trafficking rings.
Home Office figures show that an average of 71 people were charged each year between 2016 and 2020 under a statutory provision that makes illegal entry and overstaying a criminal offence.
This represents just 0.4 per cent – or one in 250 of the 17,000 illegal migrants caught by Border Force each year since 2016/17.
The Home Office does not publish figures on the total number of illegal migrants in the UK but a study 18 months ago by the respected Pew think tank estimated it at between 800,000 and 1.2 million.
According to Home Office figures, there were nearly 50,000 illegal entrants detected in the UK but only 116 charged in 2020/21, 13 in 2019/20, 24 in 2018/19, 48 in 2017/18 and 154 in 2016/17.
The figures were dug out by Lord Green, the former chairman of the Migration Watch think tank.
They also showed there were less than 50 convictions for illegal entry or overstaying under the Immigration Act of 1971, which Migration Watch contrasted with the 114,000 convictions of UK residents for TV licence fee evasion in 2019.
Alp Mehmet, Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: “While 100,000 people were convicted for failure to pay the TV licence, the latest full-year (2020-21) figure for convictions for illegal entry or overstaying was 48.
“If that is an indication of where the Government’s priorities lie, no wonder they continue to fail to deal with the massive problem of illegal immigration.”
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, in March announced a crackdown on illegal migration so that anyone who pays criminal gangs to bring them to the UK would only ever receive temporary permission to remain and would be regularly assessed for removal.
People smugglers – responsible for shipping many of the 8,500 people who crossed the English Channel in small boats last year – could be given life sentences rather than the current maximum of 14 years.
Asylum applicants with criminal records who returned to the UK after being deported would receive a jail sentence of up to five years. The current maximum is six months.