Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why the number of migrants sent back to Europe after travelling to the UK by boat has reduced from 289 in 2020 to five in 2021.

The UK is in discussions regarding the returns of asylum seekers to European Member States; it would not be appropriate to provide a running commentary on these negotiations.

Whilst we are working to secure appropriate new return agreements with safe, third countries, we continue to return people on a case-by-case basis.

Our inadmissibility provisions in the Immigration Rules give us the legal basis to declare an asylum claim as inadmissible where a person has a connection to or has passed through a safe country. The first returns on inadmissible grounds have been successfully carried out.

The latest statistics which were published in August 2021, can be found on gov.uk. The next set of data is due to be published in November 2021.