The British government has deported 44 Nigerians and Ghanaians to their home countries in a single flight.
According to a report by The Guardian, Nigerian and Ghanaian citizens were taken back to their countries on Friday, 18 October.
Deportation flights to Nigeria and Ghana are relatively rare, the report said. Citing data obtained under the freedom of information rules, the newspaper reported that there have been only four deportation flights since 2020. Each flight involved six, seven, 16 and 21 deportees, respectively, until Friday's flight, which had more than double the highest that had been removed on a single flight.
The Home Office confirmed a "major surge" in immigration enforcement and returns activities.
"We have already begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK and ensure the rules are respected and enforced, with over 3,600 returned in the first two months of the new government," The Guardian quoted a spokesperson for the Home Office as saying.
The deportation came at a time when the UK immigration policy on asylum seekers was witnessing drastic changes.
After five decades of tussle, the British government recently struck a deal to eventually hand over the Chagos Islands. This archipelago is in the Indian Ocean and belongs to the southeast African island country of Mauritius.
The agreement is still pending the finalisation of a treaty, but both parties have committed to completing it as swiftly as possible.
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The deal saw the two governments jointly declaring the full sovereignty of the Chagos, a remote group of more than 60 islands, adding it would belong to Mauritius in exchange for guarantees that a United States military base could continue operating there for the many years to come.
A critical part of this historic agreement is that any asylum seekers who arrive in Diego Garcia before a treaty between the UK and Mauritius to hand back the Chagos Islands is finalised will be sent to Saint Helena, a British territory in the Atlantic Ocean said to be one of the most remote places on Earth.
The Chagos Islands deal is expected to be signed next year. This explains the latest round of deportation of Nigerians and Ghanaian citizens.
Since 2021, the number of asylum seekers arriving in Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, has been in the hundreds, which is minimally comparable to the tens of thousands crossing the Channel in small boats from northern France to the UK in recent years.
