UK deportation flights carry £2,000 cash cards for foreign criminals amid costly operation

Forty-seven foreign national offenders were deported on an overnight flight to Romania, in an operation officials say involved almost 100 staff and cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds. Onboard, some passengers were handed bank cards pre-loaded with £2,000 as part of the Facilitated Return Scheme, which offers cash to encourage voluntary removal. Those on the flight had previously come to the United Kingdom legally before forfeiting that right by committing serious crimes. The group included killers, thieves and sexual abusers.

Footage filmed by ITV News shows up to six staff escorting each passenger up the stairs to the aircraft, and some offenders needing restraints to stop them lashing out. A total of 47 people were deported, with most of them men and a handful of women. The operation involved almost a hundred staff and would have cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds. The FNOs were handed pre-loaded cash cards to withdraw on landing and use to aid their resettlement in Romania. ITV’s filming began at a deportation centre near Heathrow, where a journalist asked detainees whether they wanted to go home; one replied, "No, I’ve been living here ten years."

Three migrants who were meant to be onboard avoided the flight by mounting legal claims. The Home Office did not disclose the airline that was used for the flight or the airport it was heading to. Three migrants who were meant to be onboard avoided the flight by mounting legal claims. Commenting on the footage, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood admitted the sight of criminals being handed £2,000 in taxpayer cash "doesn't look good." But she said: "A voluntary removal is actually cheaper for the British taxpayer. It has long been the case that we do offer financial packages as an incentive to people to drop their claims and drop the attempts they make to stay in our country, and to board a flight and leave."

Ms Mahmood also said she intended to "ramp up" one-in, one-out deportations to France. Under the scheme, which came into force last month and seeks to remove those who crossed the English Channel back to the continent, in exchange for those who apply in France and are approved being able to come to Britain. Just three have been removed so far. "I will be ramping up the numbers and I hope to say more about that in the weeks to come," Mahmood added. "You start with a small first step and then you ramp up, which is exactly what we're going to be doing. We have a clear agreement with the French, we will want to see those numbers increase... I'm not going to get ahead of operational decisions." She continued: "I want us to get to a point where the numbers that are being removed are acting as a deterrent and stop people getting on the boats in the first place. We have proved it can work, we've got flights off the ground, more are going this week, and we will be looking to ramp up the numbers."

The deportations come as new research suggested that clearing a backlog of foreign criminals will take decades at current removal rates for certain nationalities. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, who compiled the analysis of government data, described the pace as "totally unacceptable" for some groups. There are 145 Eritrean criminals in jail, according to the latest data, but in the 12 months to June only two were removed. At that rate, the Government would take 73 years to deport the total Eritrean prison population. Similarly, despite the Iranian jail population in England and Wales standing at 279, only six were deported in the last year—a timeline of 47 years. For the 338 Jamaican prisoners, 23 were deported in the year to June, meaning 15 years would pass before the backlog is cleared, while Somalis would take about 22 years under current pace. The true rates of removal will be even lower than those set out in the analysis, seen exclusively by the Daily Mail.