A record number of Nigerians and Ghanaians were deported to their home countries on one flight, with 44 forcibly removed on Friday, the Home Office has confirmed.
The news came as it emerged that any asylum seekers who arrive in Diego Garcia before a treaty between the UK and Mauritius to hand back the Chagos Islands is finalised will be sent to Saint Helena, a British territory in the Atlantic Ocean described as one of the most remote places on Earth.
The Chagos Islands deal is expected to be signed next year. About 60 Tamils who have been stranded on Diego Garcia since 2021 and who have mounted a legal challenge claiming they have been unlawfully detained on the island will not be included in the Saint Helena deal. Judgment in their unlawful detention claim is expected soon.
Numbers of asylum seekers arriving in Diego Garcia since 2021 are in the hundreds, not comparable to the tens of thousands crossing the Channel in small boats from northern France to the UK in recent years.
The Home Office told the Guardian on Friday evening that the Nigeria and Ghana deportations were part of a “major surge” in immigration enforcement and returns.
Since Labour came to power in July, 3,600 people have been returned to various countries, including about 200 to Brazil and 46 on a flight to Vietnam and Timor-Leste. There are also regular deportation flights to Albania, Lithuania and Romania.
Deportation flights to Nigeria and Ghana are relatively rare, with just four recorded since 2020, according to data released under freedom of information rules. The previous flights had far fewer people onboard, with six, seven, 16 and 21 respectively. Friday’s flight had more than double that number removed on a single flight.
The Guardian spoke to four Nigerians while they were held at Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick before their deportation. One man due to fly tried to kill himself. His cellmate, who witnessed the attempt, said he was “very traumatised” by what he had seen.
A second man said: “I’ve been in the UK for 15 years as an asylum seeker. I have no criminal record but the Home Office has refused my claim.”
A third man said he had been groomed into exploitation as a child and had torture scars on his body. “I told the Home Office I was a victim of trafficking. They rejected my claim.”
A fourth said he had desperately searched for a solicitor to challenge his removal directions, but had been unable to find anyone to represent him.
Fizza Qureshi, the chief executive of Migrants’ Rights Network, who was in contact with some of the people on the Nigeria/Ghana deportation flight before they left the UK, said: “We are extremely shocked at the cruelty of these deportations, especially with the speed, secrecy and the lack of access to legal support. In the words of one detainee we spoke to before he was put on the flight: ‘The Home Office is playing politics with people’s lives. We have not done anything wrong other than cry for help.’”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have already begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK and ensure the rules are respected and enforced, with over 3,600 returned in the first two months of the new government.”
More than 600 people crossed the Channel in small boats on Friday, according to Home Office figures.
A total of 647 people made the crossing in 10 boats, pushing the total for the year above 28,000.
Friday’s crossings came after French authorities announced the death of a baby off the coast of Wissant in the Pas-de-Calais region on Thursday evening.
