Number of failed asylum seekers kicked out of Britain falls to lowest level for six years

The rate of asylum removals from Britain has fallen to a six-year low as the number of new arrivals rises.

It means Gordon Brown has effectively dumped Tony Blair's target of cutting the backlog of 500,000 failed asylum seekers still living in Britain.

Home Office figures show that in the last quarter of 2007 a total of 8,140 claimed asylum in Britain - the highest figure since the start of 2005. But only 2,965 failed asylum seekers were deported from October to December, the lowest figure since early 2002.

The Home Office admitted the "tipping point" target - to deport more failed asylum seekers than the number of new unfounded claims each month - which Tony Blair launched three years ago, no longer reflected the Government's "current focus" and was not a priority.

The target aimed to deport more failed asylum seekers than the number of unfounded new cases and was launched by Tony Blair amid great fanfare three years ago.

Opposition critics said the admission showed the Home Office was "completely incapable of addressing more than one crisis at any time", while Government targets were "a mere diversionary exercise" to fool the public.

The Home Office figures revealed that the number of failed asylum seekers removed from Britain has dropped by more than a quarter in the past year.

They showed that 26 per cent fewer failed asylum seekers and dependants were ejected from the UK in 2007 when compared to the previous year.

The total number deported fell to 13,595 over the 12 months, as the figures also revealed the total number of asylum applications in 2007 fell by one per cent.

In 2007, 23,430 applied for asylum with the figure rising to 27,905 including dependants.

Between October and December last year, there were 6,910 applications - a 19 per cent rise compared with the same period in 2006.

But the Home Office claims annual asylum applications are now at their lowest point for 14 years.

The Border and Immigration Authority (BIA) removed 63,140 people in total from the UK last year, including foreign criminals and other immigration offenders as well as failed asylum seekers.

The 19 per cent jump in asylum applications in the UK in the last quarter of 2007 contrasted with the situation in 15 other EU countries, which saw an 8 per cent fall.

The total of 6,910 applications from October to December was the highest since the first quarter of 2005, when it stood at just over 7,000.

Director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, David Frost, said: "The comparative success of the UK economy in recent years has been largely due to the influx of willing workers from Eastern Europe.

"Employers up and down the country tell me that they take on migrant workers because their work ethic is so much better than domestic workers.

"The vast majority of these jobs could have been filled by UK residents but, until the Government gets to grips with this country's severe skills shortage and increasing welfare dependency culture, businesses will continue to employ migrant workers in large numbers."

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said: "Today's figures prove that last year we deported someone every eight minutes - and we got our priorities straight.

"We deported the highest ever number of foreign law-breakers - up by a huge 80 per cent - and we attacked illegal working much harder because it undercuts British wages, with 40 per cent more illegal working operations.

"That helped us boost removals of non-asylum seekers to almost 50,000 - that's nine per cent up on the year before."