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Illegal Immigrants

Volume 487: debated on Monday 9 February 2009

13. To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of measures to remove illegal immigrants from the UK. (254649)

The huge shake-up we have made to the immigration system is paying off. Our borders are tougher than ever before and we are removing record numbers of foreign law breakers.

In the three months to September 2008 around 17,500 people were removed. This included a 14 per cent. increase in non asylum removals—a group that includes foreign national prisoners.

Last year the UK Border Agency removed 5,000 foreign prisoners, a record performance that is nearly four times the number removed in 2005.