Failed Iraqi asylum seekers will be returned from UK after deal

Britain has signed a deal with Iraq to return migrants and tackle people smuggling, ministers announced as official figures showed the cost of the asylum system ballooned to a record £5bn amid the Channel crisis.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper travelled to the Middle Eastern country to sign the agreement this week as the Government continues to struggle to grip the small boats crisis.

Home Office spending on asylum rose by 36 per cent to £5.38bn in 2023/24, while the number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in hotels had risen by more than 6,000 since Labour took power to 35,651 at the end of September, new figures published on Thursday showed.

The deal with Iraq, which appears modelled on agreements hard-right Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has with north African nations, is designed to increase the returns of migrants and tackle the flow of asylum seekers across the Channel closer to its source, in a bid to bring down small boat crossings.

Cooper admitted a joint statement aimed at boosting returns of failed asylum seekers to Iraq was just a “first step” that would be focused on speeding up paperwork so that people could be sent back to the country if they do not have the right to claim asylum in the UK because they are not fleeing war or persecution.

The deal will also see the UK pay Iraq £500,000 to train local law enforcement in border security, and to support projects in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including a new taskforce, to combat people smuggling.

Cooper announced the plans during a three-day visit to Iraq and Kurdistan. It includes £300,000 to help Iraq build capacity to tackle organised crime including around immigration and illegal drug flows, as well as communications campaigns in the country to combat people smugglers’ advertising their services.

Britain has struggled to return failed asylum seekers to Iraq despite them being among the top nationalities for arrivals via small boat crossings.

Int he year to June, 3,002 Iraqis arrived via small boat crossing but only 26 were deported, while a further 193 agreed to return home voluntarily.

It comes amid a wider Government focus on boosting returns, with a 30 per cent increase in forced deportations to 2,061 since Labour took power in July, compared to the same period the previous year, a 25 per cent increase in foreign criminals (to 1,249) and a 12 per cent increase in voluntary returns (to 6,247), according to the figures published Thursday.

Cooper told reporters: “The work to stop smuggler gangs doesn’t start on the French Coast. We have to work Upstream with other governments with other law enforcement. These criminal gangs operate across borders as well. I’ve been talking as well to the Iraqi government about increasing our returns cooperation and increasing returns because again, we’ve been very clear that the rules need to be properly respected and enforced.

Cooper also moved to quell concerns about returning Iraqis to a country where serious human rights concerns have been highlighted by charities and NGOs, telling reporters: “We have been very clear and explicit in the statements that have been agreed is a commitment to international law, a commitment to international humanitarian law and commitments to international human rights standards.

“Those are central parts of the statements agreed today and they’re clear about standards always being maintained. Obviously, in any individual case, any individual asylum cases are being decided in terms of on a case-by-case basis but we’re also clear that as a result of a lot of the security work that has been done Iraq today is not the same as it was 20 years ago, and so those returns need to be done on a case-by-case basis.

“But it is also clear that really the rules need to be respected and enforced. And that includes for people who have not fled persecution and it’s important that we make sure that happens.”