A Conservative peer has highlighted a sharp drop in deportations of illegal migrants to three Asian countries. He also criticised the reluctance of some foreign governments in facilitating the return of their nationals caught residing illegally in the UK.
The issue was raised during a debate on the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 on November 5 in the House of Lords. Lord Davies of Gower, Shadow Minister for the Home Office, referred to data from the UK’s Migration Observatory, highlighting that the return of individuals from Sri Lanka had fallen by 97% over the past decade. Figures also show a similar drop for Bangladesh (98%) and Pakistan (84%).
The Tory peer was speaking in support of his Amendment 71, when he made reference to the immigration data.
If passed, the amendment will make it mandatory, rather than optional, for the UK Home Secretary to impose visa penalties on countries that refuse or delay cooperation in verifying the identity or accepting the return of their nationals.
“When a country refuses or delays verification of identity or status, removal becomes virtually impossible,” he said. “The existing provisions of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 give the Secretary of estate discretion to act. Amendment 71 would convert that into a duty.”
The Tory lord noted that the Home Secretary had seemed to back the idea in September, as she hosted ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group.
“For countries that do not play ball, we have been talking about taking much more coordinated action between the Five Eyes countries,” Shabana Mahmood told reporters at the time.
“And for us that means the possibility of cutting visas in the future to say we do expect countries to play ball, play by the rules and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country, you have to take them back.”
Lord Davies also backed Amendment 35, which would force the Home Office to collect and publish data on how many overseas students commit crimes, have their visas revoked or are deported.
He noted that there had been instances of “very serious offending by non-UK nationals on student visas.”
“If the Home Office does hold such information, it should publish it, but if it does not currently hold such information, it should be required to do so,” he said.
“It is slightly concerning that the Home Office has stated that it does not collect such data, given the importance of transparency for creating trust in government. It also demonstrates a hole in the Home Office’s understanding of patterns of offences and the prevalence of offending by those on student visas.”
