Has the government really “returned” 24,000 people?

Sir Keir Starmer underlined his government efforts to combat illegal immigration, saying: “We have returned more than 24,000 people who are not allowed to be here.”

He was speaking at an international summit in London aimed at tackling the gangs that turn people.

The Ministry of the Interior also published a video on X, showing that people were escorted in planes by officials of the application of the Immigration Act, with the words: “We have deleted more than 24,000 people”.

But the complaint is misleading. The latest government figures show that only 6,339 of them were “applied yields”. The majority were “voluntary yields” – and a significant number of them occur without the direct involvement of the government or even knowledge.

The Ministry of the Interior says that all the results of the returns are the result of the department’s collective efforts – we asked for a complete ventilation of its latest figures which it did not provide.

The Home Office records the “yields” of people who have no legal right to be in the United Kingdom.

This could be due to the fact that they entered illegally – on a small boat for example – or have exceeded their visa or are subject to an action in deportation due to a criminal conviction.

Yields are classified as “applied” or “volunteers”.

A forced return could demand that an immigration agent escort an individual to make sure that he has left the United Kingdom.

Certain voluntary yields involve government assistance, for example, individuals can have their flight paid and obtain up to £ 3,000 for resettlement costs.

But in other voluntary yields, people leave the United Kingdom independently without the knowledge of the government at the time. These departures cannot be revealed until later, by checks against visa or flight recordings, for example.

These are called “other verified yields” -or independent -.

We asked Home Office a complete ventilation of the 24,000 figure used by the Prime Minister to see how many of these yields come into this last category.

He was unable to provide this.

However, we can return to the last full set of published returns figures which cover the period between July (when the work has come to power) and December 2024.

During this period, there were 17,300 yields.

On this overall figure, 6,150 yields (35%) were classified as “other verified” – in the words of the order, the people who left the United Kingdom without notifying the government.

It was the largest category of yields.

As the above graph shows, after “independent”, the next largest category was “applied” at 26%.

The remaining categories are “ assisted ” (25%) – where a person goes within the framework of an office program at home and “ controlled ” (14%) – where a person goes to their own costs and tells managers before leaving, or where the home office supervises his departure

A recent report from the Migration Observatory, University of Oxford, said: “We do not know to what extent, if all, the government’s activity and the policy affect the number of return persons independently (as opposed to other factors such as economic conditions).”

“There are many evidence and data gaps that make it difficult to obtain a complete image of deportations and feedback,” he added.

However, ministers and labor deputies have repeatedly involved that the government is actively involved in all returns of immigration offenders.

Affirmations using a global yield and the words “deleted” or “returned” were made during interviews, in parliament and on social networks at least 20 times in recent months.

And the Minister of Border Security, Dame Angela Eagle, said on March 31: “We have already expelled – sent home – 19,000 people without the right to be here.”

We asked the Ministry of the Interior how the government could claim credit for people who leave their own will and without being aware of their departure at the time.

He indicated that he had both a direct and indirect role in yields and highlighted wider measures that discourage and prevent immigration delinquency.

On his publications on social networks showing that people are escorted in planes, he says that they are illustrative and that the public will understand that the ways of leaving the country will vary considerably.

The yield figures also reveal that 1,053 people who arrived in the United Kingdom on small boats were returned during the period from July to December. The number includes both forced and voluntary yields.

During the same period, 23,242 people arrived on small boats.