Labour to spend £15m on small boat deportation deals

The Home Office is spending £15m on returns partnerships with 11 countries to boost the number of deportations of small boat migrants, The Independent can reveal.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

It comes after 12 people died on Tuesday, including six children and a pregnant woman, in an attempted crossing of the English

Channel, the deadliest crossing attempt in the year to date. The department is looking for charities and non-profit organisations to support migrants with reintegration when they have been sent back to their home countries.

Under a contract published last month, the government will spend £5m each year with charities offering failed asylum seekers and those with no right to remain in the UK help such as accommodation and cash. The money will also provide food packages, assistance with family tracing and reunification, mental health and employment support, and transportation to onward destinations in an individual’s home country.

The countries included are Albania, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. Currently, citizens from each of the countries can be returned if their asylum claims are rejected by British authorities, but many have long records of human rights violations, including Iraq.