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Home Office in the media

This blog post was published under the 2015-2024 Conservative Administration

https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/08/27/home-office-in-the-media-tuesday-27-august/

Home Office in the media: Tuesday 27 August

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Leading stories

Today's Home Office media stories include channel migrant crossings and the number of failed asylum seekers in the UK.

Home Office in the media

Channel migrant boats

The Home Secretary has given the Home Office 72 hours to come up with a solution to the migrant crisis in the English Channel, the Mail reports.

Urgent talks have been held with French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner ahead of a bilateral meeting on the problem on Thursday, the report adds.

There is separate reporting on the BBC and in the Guardian, Times, Telegraph and Sun on a migrant believed to have died attempting to swim the Channel with a life jacket made of plastic bottles and swimming flippers.

A Home Office spokesperson said:

This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with the individual involved and their family and friends.

Anyone seeking to swim across the Channel or to cross this dangerous stretch of water in a small boat is taking a huge risk.

The Home Secretary is in discussions with the French authorities about this issue and we continue to work closely at all levels with France.

40,000 failed asylum seekers in UK

The Times front page reports that 40,000 failed asylum seekers remain in the UK, despite being targeted for removal. The paper states that the number has risen 15 per cent in the last year.

The report adds that many immigration experts “privately acknowledge that many will never depart”.

Of those asylum applications rejected, 3,471 have been removed in the year to June, down 27 per cent from the previous year, the report notes, citing Home Office immigration statistics.

A Home Office spokesperson said:

We are committed to removing those who are here illegally. However, legal challenges, issues obtaining travel documents and last minute submissions can frustrate immediate removal.

We will always seek to return people with no right to be in the UK and since the beginning of 2010 there have been over 362,000 voluntary or enforced returns.

 

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