Fall in asylum deportations slammed

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There were 3,280 removed between April and June this year - down 38% period-on-period and 6% lower than the first three months of this year.

The total, which includes dependants, was the lowest for five years. It means the so-called "tipping target" has now been missed for a full calendar year.

Ministers have begun to refuse to publish their own figures on the target, claiming it would be "unhelpful" to do so. But the latest figure is likely to be 7% behind target.

A Home Office spokesman said the decline was due to officials concentrating on deporting foreign criminals rather than would-be refugees.

The foreign prisoners fiasco of 2005 involved more than 1,000 offenders being freed from jail without being considered for deportation, and led to the sacking of former home secretary Charles Clarke.

However, there is still a backlog of tens of thousands of failed asylum seekers who continue to live in Britain, with some commentators suggesting the total could be as high as half a million.

Separately, the number of Eastern Europeans who have arrived in Britain since eight former Soviet Bloc countries joined the EU in May 2004 reached 683,000, according to other data.

In addition, the second quarter of this year saw 9,335 arrivals from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU on January 1, plus an additional 3,980 who came here under the seasonal agricultural workers' scheme.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said the figures showed the immigration and asylum system was "out of control". And Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: "It is obvious that incompetence still reigns at the Home Office."