The UK has signed a deal with Iraq to return migrants and tackle people smuggling, ministers have announced.
It comes as official figures showed the cost of the asylum system has ballooned to a record £5bn amid the Channel crisis.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper travelled to Iraq to sign the agreement this week.
Home Office spending on asylum rose by 36 per cent to £5.38bn in 2023/24, while the number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in hotels had increased by more than 6,000 since Labour took power, to 35,651 at the end of September, acoording to new figures published on Thursday.
The deal with Iraq is designed to increase migrant returns, and tackle the flow of asylum seekers across the Channel closer to its source, in a bid to bring down small boat crossings.,
It appears to be modelled on agreements that hard-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has struck with north African nations.
Cooper said a joint statement, aimed at boosting returns of failed asylum seekers to Iraq, was just a “first step” that would be focused on speeding up paperwork, so people could be sent back to the country if they do not have the right to claim asylum in the UK because they are not fleeing war or persecution.
The UK will also pay Iraq £500,000 to train local law enforcement in border security, and to support projects in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, including a new taskforce, to combat people smuggling.
Cooper announced the plans during a three-day visit to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. The cash includes £300,000 to help Iraq build capacity to tackle organised crime including around immigration and illegal drug flows, as well as communications campaigns in the country to combat people smugglers’ advertising their services.
Britain has struggled to return failed asylum seekers to Iraq despite them being among the top nationalities for arrivals via small boat crossings.
In the year to June, 3,002 Iraqis arrived on small boats but only 26 were deported, while a further 193 agreed to return home voluntarily.
It comes amid a wider Government focus on boosting returns, with a 30 per cent increase in forced deportations to 2,061 since Labour took power in July, compared to the same period the previous year.
There was also a 25 per cent increase in deportations of foreign criminals (to 1,249) and a 12 per cent increase in voluntary returns (to 6,247), according to the figures published Thursday.
Cooper told reporters: “The work to stop smuggler gangs doesn’t start on the French coast. We have to work upstream with other governments, with other law enforcement.
“These criminal gangs operate across borders as well. I’ve been talking to the Iraqi government about increasing our returns co-operation and increasing returns because, again, we’ve been very clear that the rules need to be properly respected and enforced.
The Home Secretary moved to quell concerns about returning Iraqis to a country where serious human rights concerns have been highlighted by charities and NGOs.
She told reporters: “We have been very clear and explicit in the statements that have been agreed is a commitment to international law, a commitment to international humanitarian law, and commitments to international human rights standards. Those are central parts of the statements agreed today and they’re clear about standards always being maintained.
“Obviously … any individual asylum cases are being decided in terms of a case-by-case basis, but we’re also clear that as a result of a lot of the security work that has been done, Iraq today is not the same as it was 20 years ago, and so those returns need to be done on a case-by-case basis.
“But it is also clear that the rules need to be respected and enforced. And that includes for people who have not fled persecution, and it’s important that we make sure that happens.”
Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon however insisted it was “vital” to ensure the Government upholds international law when striking global migration agreements.
He said: “Disrupting the gangs and ensuring the UK works with other countries to deliver effective enforcement and prosecutions is important but the Government should not see it is a magic bullet that will stop refugees taking dangerous journeys to reach to safety in the UK or fix all the challenges in the asylum system.
“A comprehensive multi-pronged approach is needed that includes expanding safe and legal ways to reach the UK for those seeking asylum, a functioning asylum decision-making system to help refugees rebuild their lives and a new independent voluntary returns scheme that assists those whose asylum claims are refused to return with dignity and support.
“It is also vital that the Government upholds its commitment to international law and respecting human rights when working with other governments to address the global challenge of migration and does not compromise on those principled commitments.”
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