Home Office did set migrant removal targets, report reveals, as pressure mounts on Amber Rudd to quit

The Home Office set targets for voluntary departures of illegal immigrants, according to a 2015 report, heaping further pressure on Amber Rudd who said “that’s not how we operate”.

The Home Secretary on Wednesday said she was not familiar with suggestions that regional targets for removals were in place.

But an official inspection report has surfaced which revealed targets were set in 2014/15 and for 2015/16, which were then split between 19 Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) teams across the UK.

Meanwhile, a 2013 Foreign Office-funded video, made to promote deportation to Jamaica, reportedly acknowledged some deportees may have been in the UK for decades.

The emergence of the video and the revelation that targets were set is likely to spark fury among MPs and place the Government’s handling of the fallout from the Windrush scandal under even greater scrutiny.

Calls for Ms Rudd to resign are also likely to grow with Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, having already called on her to quit.

Ms Rudd, who took over as Home Secretary in July 2016, denied targets are currently used when she appeared in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee on Wednesday.

She said “we don't have targets for removals" and added "if you are asking me if there are numbers of people we expect to be removed that's not how we operate".

Following Ms Rudd's appearance before the committee the Home Office said it had "never been (its) policy to take decisions arbitrarily to meet a target".

Yvette Cooper, the Labour chairwoman of the committee, said the response was a "complete fudge" and she would be writing to Ms Rudd "to get a proper answer" on Thursday.

A December 2015 report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration said targets were set for voluntary departures, which took place when an individual or family notified authorities of their intention to leave the UK.

The report said: "For 2014/15 (10 full months) the Home Office set a target of 7,200 voluntary departures, an average of 120 per week, with the weekly target rising to 160 by the end of March 2015.

"For 2015/16, the annual target was raised to 12,000. These targets were split between the 19 ICE teams across the UK."

The Home Office also had a process for returning families who had no legal right to remain in the UK, which had a "single numerical target".

The report said the target was "not a useful performance measure" due to the varying nature of cases year to year.

Voluntary departures included people who had approached the Home Office for financial assistance with their travel arrangements.

The assistance was available to anyone over 18 who was in the UK illegally, had been refused leave to remain in the UK or had applied for an extension of leave but wanted to withdraw the application and depart.

An outcry over treatment of migrants from the Commonwealth who arrived after the Second World War has put immigration policy and its administration in the spotlight.