Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will deport thousands of failed asylum seekers before they can use human rights laws to appeal or block their removals under laws made in 2002. The Mail has more.

Using laws drawn up by Tony Blair’s Labour government, the Home Secretary plans to remove migrants as soon as their asylum claims are rejected, so they can only appeal once back in their home countries. 

The tougher approach is aimed at reducing the record backlog of more than 100,000 appeals made by rejected asylum seekers – many of whom are housed in hotels costing the taxpayer millions.

Failed asylum seekers will be deported to 25 “safe” countries identified by officials before they can appeal. These include India, Brazil, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Albania and Ukraine.

The measure has come under fire from Labour leadership challenger Angela Rayner, who said it was “un-British” and “pulled the rug” from hardworking families. Nearly 50 other MPs threatened to rebel over Mahmood’s immigration crackdown last month.

Alex Norris, the Border Security and Asylum Minister, told the Telegraph: “A firm and fair approach to immigration does not mean hard-working taxpayers provide for individuals with refused human rights claims, many of whom are vile criminals.

“That is why we are scaling up the use of these powers to deport more foreign national offenders to their home countries, where their appeals can be heard. We will not hesitate to remove incentives which draw people to the UK illegally.”

Under Blair’s Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, the Home Office can only deport failed asylum claims to safe countries where they do not face a “real risk of serious irreversible harm”.

The obvious question is why it is only now that the Government has decided to start using laws drawn up 24 years ago to secure the borders. Why did the Tories not use them either?

Worth reading in full.