For the first time the Government has released images of people being marched onto flights – including one who is in a waist restraint – as human rights groups hit out
Footage released as 19,000 migrants deported in government crackdown
The Home Office has sparked a backlash after releasing photos of migrants being restrained and forced onto deportation flights for the first time.
The images show migrants – one of them bound with a waist restraint – being marched onto planes surrounded by border officials. Ministers have hailed more than 19,000 removals since the general election. Latest figures reveal enforced returns have risen by nearly a quarter – 24% – while removals of foreign national offenders (FNOs) are up 21%.
And illegal working raids have gone up by 38% compared to the same period the year before, the Home Office said. But critics accuse the Government of “using performative tactics” that “play into negative and dangerous narratives about immigration”. But a Home Office minister said it is “important that we show what we are doing”.
Last month alone nearly 750 enforced returns including around 360 foreign national offenders took place. This is highest rate of returns since 2018 and includes the four biggest returns charter flights in the UK’s history – with a total of more than 850 people on board.
Government aides say the surge in figures is due to 1,000 officials being pulled off the Tories’ doomed Rwanda plan and the implementation of the Illegal Migration Act, which was draining the Home Office’s time, energy and money.
At times people who resist are constrained using waist restraints, leg restraints or rigid bar handcuffs. A small percentage have to be carried by escorts onto the flight.
A tunnelled case covers the plane stairs in case a person tries to jump off in desperation during a forced removal. The Home Office released photos showing different levels of “risk” cases, from a person walking freely up the stairs to a man with his hands bound by a specialist waist restraint and surrounded by a group of highly trained escorts.
In the latter image, a man surrounded by escorts wears a waist restraint belt with his hands restricted by wrist straps. Some 47 men, including 24 FNOs, were on the recent European Charter flight shown in the photos.
An individual could be surrounded by up to four escorts on the flight if they are particularly disruptive, meaning almost 200 escorts could be needed for the flight in question. Medics, translators and escort vehicle drivers are all also involved in the deportation.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “It was not long ago that hate-filled mobs attempted to burn refugees alive in a hotel. Communities are still healing from the appalling violence last summer so the government should not risk driving up mistrust by using performative tactics that play into negative and dangerous narratives about immigration’
“The public want a system that is orderly and controlled but also compassionate. That includes returning people without a right to be in the UK, but doing so in a dignified way instead of melodramatic television footage that will not build trust in government. Public confidence will come from clearing the asylum backlog, radically reforming asylum accommodation so billions are not wasted on hotels, and implementing an integration programme to ensure refugees can learn English, find work and contribute to our communities.”
The Home Office carries out removals are done by charter flights but also commercial scheduled flights. It emerged last week that Labour has launched adverts boasting about deporting migrants using the Reform UK’s party colours and branding.
The party failed to include any iconic Labour red on the adverts – nor the red Labour rose logo. Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle insisted the Government’s immigration policy, and its decision to publish images of arrests and deportations, is “compassionate”.
She said: “It’s important that we show what we are doing and it’s important that we send messages to people who may have been sold lies about what will await them in the UK if they get themselves smuggled in.
“They are more likely to be living in squalid conditions, being exploited by vicious gangs.
“It’s important that we get those realities across and it’s important that that’s done in imagery as well as words.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “To rebuild public confidence in the immigration system, we need to show the rules are respected and enforced.
“That’s why, as part of the Government’s Plan for Change, we have put significant additional resource into immigration enforcement and returns, so those who have no right to be here, particularly those who have committed crimes in our country, are removed as swiftly as possible.
“I want to pay tribute to all the Immigration Enforcement staff and other officials in the Home Office who strive tirelessly every day to make our returns system work firmly, fairly and swiftly.”
Green Party co-leader Carla Denya said: “This Labour government are plumbing new depths with their plan to broadcast footage of people being detained and deported. Those involved should be searching their consciences to ask if such breathtaking cruelty is really worth it all for the sake of aping the rhetoric of Reform.
“The bitter irony is that following Reform to the right on migration won’t win Labour any support – it will only lend legitimacy to Reform’s extreme views. It’s time this government showed a bit of backbone and told the truth – that migration is good for this country.”
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “Scapegoating refugees has always been a deliberate ploy by governments to distract from their own domestic failures. Pandering to Reform UK will backfire — and vulnerable people will pay the price. End dangerous crossings by opening safe routes for fellow human beings instead.”
