Failed asylum seekers who are too violent to send home
ASYLUM seekers who resort to violence and aggression to avoid being deported are costing the taxpayer £4million a year, it has emerged.
In the past three years 3,638 people who were due to be deported managed to temporarily stay in the country because they became so disruptive that officials declared it unsafe to carry on with the expulsions.
Figures released by the National Audit Office show the cost of a forced removal is around £11,000 per person, depending on where they are sent.
When a deportation is stopped due to a failed asylum seeker’s violent behaviour, much of that cost has already been incurred. But officials admit that around 10 per cent of the total is taken up with the final expulsion.
The statistics show that some people get so violent at their holding centre that it is deemed unsafe to move them, while others have to be hauled off planes at the last moment because pilots are concerned about the safety of passengers due to the asylum seeker’s behaviour.
Human Rights legislation means that UK Border Agency staff can only use approved restraint methods, and any attempt to drug the asylum seeker would be deemed unlawful. Putting the person in handcuffs is seen as a “last resort”.
Over the past four years the numbers of forced repatriations of failed asylum seekers that have had to be aborted has been about 20 every week.
Numbers have been falling recently, although the latest yearly figure of failed repatriations looks set to come close to 864, which was the figure for 207/8.
Susie Squire, campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “These botched deportations are costing an outrageous amount of taxpayers’ money.
“Ultimately, these people have been found to be breaking the law, and there is no reason for them to be such a massive financial burden on law-abiding citizens.”
