The Channel migrant crisis has sparked alarm (Image: Getty)
The findings of the Daily Express investigation into Channel migrant removals should shock you. They really are alarming figures. But was anyone truly surprised? A staggering 96,002 asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Eritrea have arrived in small boats between 2018 and 2025. But only 495 – 0.5% – have been sent back to these countries in seven years. New figures, obtained for the first time by the Daily Express, also reveal more small boat migrants have been returned to Ireland, 57, than Syria, 55 and Afghanistan, 16.
And the same number have been sent back to Somalia and Tunisia as the United States of America – all 3. We can learn three things from these figures.
One, it makes the case for a Rwanda-style scheme. Human rights laws are preventing the Home Office from removing migrants to vast numbers of countries – even if it would be practically safe to do so. Tourists, for example, aren’t routinely advised against travelling to Eritrea.
But if a scheme similar to that announced by the Conservatives in 2022 were operational, it would give immigration officials a viable option to remove arrivals from the four countries listed above.
And it makes a compelling case for leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. Britain, as it stands, cannot decide who remains here.
The vast, vast majority of small boat migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Eritrea are still in the UK. The British public has become increasingly frustrated by thousands of people cheating the system to move to the UK, then getting taxpayer-funded hotels and homes.
So, leaving the ECHR would give Britain the ability to decide who can stay and return people to their home countries. It would also allow ministers to introduce more visa sanctions and withdraw foreign aid if countries refuse to take back their nationals.
And it would create an actual deterrent to those hoping to cross the Channel.
But third, it shows how utterly broken our current immigration system is. People smugglers are deciding who stays at the moment, not the Government. The longer it takes to remove migrants from the UK, the more likely it is they are here to stay. They can marry, have children and establish roots in the UK that make it harder for judges to order their removal.
That’s why Reform UK and the Conservatives have vowed to detain and deport every migrant crossing the Channel.
Leaving the ECHR would also prevent migrants from relying on Article 8 to remain. All of Reform UK, the Conservatives and Labour have, to varying degrees, promised action on the ECHR.
Reform and the Tories will leave. Labour wants to override it and give British judges a greater say. But that will open up another can of worms.
Will they actually enforce Britain’s borders? Mainly, people think asylum judges are the problem. So, as it stands, Britain is stuck with the “unremovables”. Many Channel migrants are effectively here to stay. Until we leave the ECHR, Britain will be able to control its borders again.