Hundreds of illegal migrants deported on biggest flights ever as Keir Starmer gets 'war on gangs' win

Two more record-breaking deportation flights have taken off since the election - removing hundreds of people who entered the country illegally, the Sunday Mirror understands.

It comes as Keir Starmer celebrated a major victory in his war against vile people smuggling gangs, with the arrest of the so-called “Engine King.”

A Turkish man arrested in Amsterdam on Wednesday is thought to have supplied hundreds of boat motors to smugglers. It’s understood he has now been extradited to Belgium to face charges.

The arrest is an important blow against the gangs and their supply chains, and is being seen as a “proof of concept” for the effort to target major figures across Europe suspected of being behind the trade.

Labour can now boast to have organised the three biggest returns flights in UK history - with 629 people removed on these flights alone.

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And it’s understood more flights are planned before the end of the year - to new countries the UK hasn’t previously charted flights to.

Altogether, more than 25 bespoke returns flights have taken place since July 5th, returning individuals to a range of countries including Albania, Poland, Romania and Vietnam, plus the first ever charter to Timor-Leste, and the biggest ever returns flight to Nigeria and Ghana.

A Labour source described the state of Britain’s asylum and immigration system as an “utter disaster” when Keir Starmer took office.

“We were told it was going to be the worst year ever for small boat arrivals, and that we’d have to spend billions more to cope with the asylum backlog, including opening more than a hundred new hotels,” they said.

“All while they’d poured £700 million down the drain on a Rwanda scheme that didn’t stop a single boat or deport a single asylum seeker.”

The Home Office was warned in July that total arrivals across the channel would probably rise above 50,000 for the first time in 2024. Meanwhile the asylum backlog shot up in the final months of the Tory government.

In May and June, fewer than 100 asylum decisions were taken each day, despite migrants arriving in record numbers.

In their desperation while trying to get flights to Rwanda off the ground, they resorted to offering migrants a package worth £150,000 to move to Kigali voluntarily.

They were offered a “permanent home”, five years’ free food, private medical care, free education to degree level, vocational training and career support, £3,000 spending money and a new mobile phone.

In total, three failed asylum seekers and one immigration offender volunteered under the scheme.

In total, some 9,400 people with no legal right to be in the UK have been returned to their home countries since Labour took office, with nearly 2,600 forced deportations - an increase of 19% compared to 2023.

There has also been a 14% increase in foreign national offenders being returned since Labour took office, compared to last year.