44 Nigerians, Ghanaians deported from UK in record-breaking flight

In a significant escalation of immigration enforcement, the UK forcibly deported 44 Nigerians and Ghanaians on Friday, the largest deportation flight in recent years.

The UK Home Office confirmed this as part of a broader immigration crackdown, which has seen over 3,600 deportations since the Labour government took power in July.

This marks a shift in deportation practices, as previous flights to Nigeria and Ghana carried far fewer individuals, with the largest in recent years transporting between six and 21 people. The recent flight, which saw 44 deportees, more than doubled these numbers.

Meanwhile, asylum seekers arriving at Diego Garcia, a UK-administered island in the Indian Ocean, will be relocated to Saint Helena, pending the finalization of a treaty between the UK and Mauritius. This development affects around 60 Tamils stranded on the island since 2021, who are currently pursuing legal action over their detention.

Despite the focus on Diego Garcia, the UK’s asylum crisis continues closer to home, with 647 people crossing the English Channel from France in small boats on Friday alone, pushing the year’s total beyond 28,000.

The deportees on the recent flight included men who had lived in the UK for years. One Nigerian man, detained at Brook House immigration centre, revealed he had been in the UK for 15 years seeking asylum but was denied. Another man, a trafficking victim bearing torture scars, also had his asylum claim rejected.

Fizza Qureshi, CEO of Migrants’ Rights Network, criticized the deportations, highlighting the lack of legal support and the secrecy surrounding the process. She quoted a detainee who lamented, “The Home Office is playing politics with people’s lives.”

In response, a Home Office spokesperson defended the deportations, stating that the government is committed to enforcing immigration laws and ensuring the removal of individuals without the legal right to remain in the UK.