THE TELEGRAPH
Foreign criminals and immigration offenders have been deported on a flight that was originally scheduled to take migrants to Rwanda.
It comes after Labour scrapped the previous government’s Rwanda plan, which would have seen some asylum seekers sent to the east African country, within hours of taking power. Ministers described it as a “gimmick” and a waste of money.
However, the Home Office has now used a plane earmarked for the scheme to return 46 criminals and immigration offenders to Vietnam and East Timor instead.
It is the first flight to return illegal migrants to Vietnam since 2022 and the first ever to East Timor.
Between January and March this year, almost one in five registered arrivals on small boats to the UK were from Vietnam – the highest number of any nationality.
It is understood the plane carried offenders convicted of a range of crimes, as well as some who had overstayed their visas or entered Britain without leave to remain.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said: “Today’s flight shows the Government is taking quick and decisive action to secure our borders and return those with no right to be here.
“We thank the governments of Vietnam and Timor-Leste [East Timor] for their co-operation, without which this could never have happened.
“Our strong diplomatic bonds with other countries have never been more crucial to our mission to bring order back into the asylum and immigration system, tackling irregular migration, and making sure the rules are properly respected and enforced.”
Ms Cooper told the Commons that the asylum deal with Rwanda had cost Britain £700 million and ending it would “immediately” save £750 million earmarked for the policy this year.
The money saved will be used to set up a new Border Security Command to oversee hundreds of extra officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA), MI5 and Border Force, who will be deployed across Europe to help smash people-smuggling gangs.
Home Office staff were also being moved from working on the scheme to focus on immigration enforcement and returns, Ms Cooper said.
