UK: Immigrants sent home on almost empty jets

The UK Border Agency is spending millions of pounds hiring charter flights to deport illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers... then lets the planes take off with hundreds of empty seats. 

At times these hugely expensive charter flights leave the UK with just 10 per cent of seats occupied by people being returned to their homeland.

As the planes jet out with row upon row of empty seats they leave behind hundreds who exploit legal loopholes to stay.

UKBA figures reveal the cost of charter flights to deport people back to their home country is about £5,000 each.

The total cost of air deportations – including tickets for regular flights – has risen 40 per cent in the past five years. It now stands at £133million per year. The figure is so high because so many planes leave more than half empty. UKBA officials say the ­numbers being flown back are so low partly ­because the majority of people facing deportation put in a successful 11th- hour appeal which ­allows them to ­prolong their stay in the UK.

Incredibly some of the planes fly with just a few dozen people being sent back because the UK has “deals” with the host country so that not too many ­people arrive at the same time.

On a February flight to Pakistan 194 people were put on a list to be sent back. At take-off there were just 46 men and four women on the flight. A total of 144 people had used the legal loophole to allow them to be left behind.

UKBA, which admits some flights have twice as many escort guards as deportees, says it plans for last‑minute drop‑outs and insists it tries to ensure its planes all fly with a full complement of people being expelled by topping up with people held on a reserve list.

In February a flight to Sri Lanka took off with just 52 deportees on board after 101 made successful 11th-hour applications to stay.

Two recent flights to Ghana had a total of 45 deportees. Eighty five were erased from the passenger list, nearly twice the number eventually flown home. In the past year the UKBA has ­chartered 37 flights at a cost to the taxpayer of almost £9million. This is around £250,000 per plane.   
       
A total of 17 have returned people to Afghanistan, nine to Nigeria, four to Sri Lanka, three to Pakistan, two to Ghana and one each to Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Somebody who is being deported has to be given 72 hours ­notice, which gives them ample time to appeal.

The UKBA said: “It is right those with no right to be here should go home and these flights still ­represent a cost effective way of ­removing in ­volume. The increased expenditure on charter flights reflects the general rise in the cost of air travel and the fact that our ­charters operate almost ­exclusively to long-haul destinations.”

The TaxPayers’ ­Alliance said: “The UK Border Agency should do more to keep costs down.

“If 11th-hour ­appeals are so common, they should overbook even more than they do ­already.

“It’s absurd international agreements about how many people can ­arrive at the same time are ­stopping us from deporting those who have no right to be here and incurring extra costs for British ­taxpayers.”
 
Source:   http://www.express.co.uk