WISHART EXPOSES CHAOTIC AND COSTLY BORDER AGENCY

WISHART EXPOSES CHAOTIC AND COSTLY BORDER AGENCY

£81MILLION COST OF FLIGHTS IN FOUR YEARS – PRIVATE JET BILL DOUBLES

ANGER AS MOTHER AND CHILD DETAINED, DEPORTED, RETURNED AND DETAINED AGAIN

Questions have been raised over the use of private jets to deport immigrants after parliamentary questions revealed the cost of chartering aircraft had almost doubled in the last year to more than £8.2million.

In 2008-09 the UK Border Agency spent £26.8 million on chartered and scheduled flights to remove immigrants at the taxpayers' expense. A total of £81.5 million has been spent since 2005.

SNP Home Affairs spokesperson Pete Wishart MP tabled questions after a mother and her young son who were forcibly removed from Scotland on a chartered aircraft were immediately returned from Africa to the UK. Fatou Gaye and her son Arouna, four, were deported in May, but refused entry to the Ivory Coast and returned to the UK on the same chartered flight.

Mr Wishart is set to raise the issue in parliament next week when the House of Commons debates the remaining stages of the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill.

Mr Wishart said:

“These figures are shocking, and the UK Government must explain why the number of chartered flights has soared.

“Nobody would dispute there is a need for removals, but it is not clear why the Border Agency believes that chartering private jets is the best use of taxpayers money.

“Fatou Gaye, and her young son, should never have been deported to the Ivory Coast - but they were detained and flown by private jet to Africa and then back here again when they were refused entry. This escapade alone has cost in excess of £70,000.

“Fatou and her four-year-old are now back in the UK and back in a detention centre, held there by a UK Government that has promised time and time again to end the practice of holding children in detention centres. Holding children in these prisons is inhumane at the best of times, but this boy, too young to have started school, is now serving his fourth term in a detention centre.

“These questions, and the case of Fatou Gaye has exposed the chaotic and costly workings of the UK Borders Agency, and things must change. I will be raising this issue in parliament next week when the Commons debates the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill.”