UK Home Secretary Priti Patel will create a so-called “league table of countries” for migrant deportation based on their willingness to take back criminals and illegal migrants, The Times reported.
The table will be used as a way to pressure countries to agree to individual migrant return deals, according to the outlet.
“If countries are falling down the list, they will face sanctions,” a government source was cited as saying.
The report referenced the powers that came into effect last Tuesday through the Nationality and Borders Act – touted as the biggest overhaul of the UK asylum system in decades. The Home Secretary will now be granted the right to sanction countries that refuse to take back their own foreign criminals and illegal immigrants.
Eritrea, Gambia and Bangladesh are believed to be nations particularly resistant to welcoming back failed asylum seekers and foreign criminals, with India and Pakistan allegedly also ‘troublesome’ in this respect.
The report clarified, however, that a migration and mobility deal signed with India last year incorporated an exemption for the new visa penalties. Pakistan may reportedly dodge visa sanctions because of a crucial security and counter-terrorism partnership, according to cited government officials.
Meanwhile, Albania, Poland and Nigeria, on the opposite side of the spectrum, would be held up as an example to emulate.
Penalties for countries resisting taking back failed asylum-seekers would include fully suspending visa applications for their citizens, imposing a £190 surcharge on their applications, or increasing visa processing times, added the report. Study, work, visitor and settlement visas could all reportedly fall under such visa penalties.
Although not expected to be published, the table is allegedly being touted as a potentially beneficial way of procuring more bilateral returns deals.
Chief Executive at Freedom from Torture, Sonya Sceats, slammed the new immigration policy idea as “unhinged.”
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants called it a “racist & manipulative plan from Priti Patel.”
The report comes as last week Priti Patel struck an agreement with Nigeria to fast-track deportation of foreign criminals. The memorandum of understanding, described by the Home Secretary on Thursday as a “landmark agreement,'' will allow emergency travel certificates or temporary passports to be issued within five working days of receipt of a person’s passport or biometric details.
It has already seen thirteen Nigerians removed to Lagos on a June 30 flight, a Home Office spokesman was cited by Forbes as saying. The flight then carried on to Ghana, where eight Ghanaians disembarked. Similar deals were struck with Albania and Ghana last year.
Among other new powers, the UK government may now deport criminals up to a year before the end of their sentence, whereas, previously, the period was nine months. Returning offenders will now face five years, up from six months, behind bars.
Towards late 2021 the UK had over 11,300 foreign criminals eligible for deportation, added the report.
The returns deals come as Priti Patel’s separate agreement under which illegal arrivals in the UK face removal to Rwanda for processing has stalled.
The Home Office’s much-anticipated first charter flight under the swap deal was cancelled after a late intervention by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) last month. It had stated that individuals should not be removed until the High Court had ruled on whether the policy was lawful.
The deal had been touted by the UK Home Secretary as a way to deter people from crossing the Channel to the UK in small boats. Over 3,000 migrants had crossed in June, marking the highest monthly total this year, according to PA news agency analysis of government figures.