Illegal Migrants and Foreign Criminals Face Mass Removal Drive

Key Points

• More than 45,000 foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers are due to be removed from the United Kingdom over the next decade.
• New detention projects at Haslar and Campsfield Immigration Removal Centres will lift national detention capacity by 40%.
• Combined capacity at the two sites will rise more than threefold, from 290 beds to 1,000 beds.
• Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood says returns and deportations are now running at their highest level in almost ten years.
• Close to 70,000 people with no right to remain in the UK have been removed since the current government took office.
• Removals have risen by 41% compared with the previous 21-month period, including a 36% rise in foreign national offenders removed.
• The Immigration Enforcement budget is set to double by the 2028 to 2029 financial year.
• Immigration Enforcement workforce numbers are due to grow by 60% against 2024 levels by 2026 to 2027.
• An Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) report found more than 412,000 illegal migrants were in the UK when the government took office.
• An Immigration and Asylum Bill, confirmed in the King’s Speech, will reform human rights provisions including Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and modern slavery legislation.

London (Britain Today News) June 29, 2026 – More than 45,000 foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers will be removed from the United Kingdom over the coming decade, the Home Office has confirmed, as the department unveiled a significant expansion of immigration detention capacity at two sites in southern England.

The expansion projects, planned for the Haslar and Campsfield Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs), will deliver a 40% increase in the UK’s overall detention capacity for individuals who have no legal right to remain in the country, according to figures released by the Home Office. The department said the combined capacity at the two centres would more than triple, rising from 290 beds to 1,000 beds once the work is complete.

Officials at the Home Office said the additional detention spaces were directly linked to the department’s ability to remove more offenders and illegal migrants from the country, framing the announcement as part of a broader effort to strengthen enforcement against illegal entry into the UK.

“This sends a clear message: if you come here illegally, you will not be able to stay,”

the Home Office said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

What Has the Home Secretary Said About the Detention Expansion?

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out the government’s position on the announcement, framing it within a wider pattern of rising removals over the past year. According to the Home Office statement, Mahmood said:

“Returns and deportations are at their highest level in nearly a decade.”

Mahmood went on to address the scale of removals carried out since the government took office, stating:

“Nearly 70,000 individuals with no right to be here have been removed from the UK since this government took office.”

The Home Secretary indicated that the pace of removals would not slow, adding:

“But we will not stop there. These expansions will see thousands more foreign criminals and illegal migrants who have no right to be here removed.”

Her comments place the Haslar and Campsfield expansion at the centre of the government’s stated approach to immigration enforcement, presenting additional detention capacity as a direct enabler of further removals rather than a standalone infrastructure project.

Where Are Haslar and Campsfield, and Why Were They Chosen?

Haslar and Campsfield are both long-standing sites within the UK’s immigration detention network. Haslar, in Gosport, Hampshire, and Campsfield, near Kidlington in Oxfordshire, have previously operated as immigration removal centres before being brought back into use or expanded under current government plans.

The Home Office has not published a detailed site-by-site breakdown of how the additional 710 beds will be distributed between the two locations, but it has confirmed that the combined effect of both projects will be to lift total capacity at the sites from 290 to 1,000 beds. That increase alone accounts for the 40% rise in national detention capacity cited in the announcement, underlining how central these two sites are to the government’s wider expansion strategy.

Detention centres of this kind are used to hold individuals who are awaiting removal from the UK, including failed asylum seekers and foreign nationals who have committed criminal offences and are subject to deportation proceedings.

How Many Foreign Criminals and Illegal Migrants Have Already Been Removed?

The Home Office figures show that almost 70,000 individuals with no right to remain in the UK have been removed since the government took office, a figure the department has repeatedly highlighted as evidence of intensified enforcement activity.

Of that total, the Home Office said 10,000 were foreign national offenders, representing a 36% increase in this category compared with the equivalent period under the previous administration. Overall removals, the department said, are up 41% compared with the preceding 21-month period.

These figures, as presented by the Home Office, are intended to demonstrate a sustained upward trend in enforcement outcomes rather than a single short-term spike, with the department linking the new detention capacity directly to its ability to maintain or accelerate that trend.

Why Does the Government Say Returns Are at a Decade High?

According to the Home Office, returns and deportations are now running at their highest level in nearly ten years. The department has attributed this in part to what it describes as dramatically intensified enforcement action taken since the publication of a critical report into the state of the UK’s migration system.

The Home Office said the new detention capacity at Haslar and Campsfield would build further on this enforcement drive, suggesting that the rise in returns recorded so far is intended to continue rather than plateau as the additional beds come into use.

What Did the ICIBI Report Find About Illegal Migration in the UK?

A report published last week by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) found that the government inherited a migration system in which more than 412,000 illegal migrants were present in the UK, according to the Home Office’s own characterisation of the findings.

The Home Office has presented this figure as the backdrop against which its enforcement strategy, including the Haslar and Campsfield expansion, should be understood. The department said its response to the ICIBI findings has included a marked intensification of enforcement action, with deportations rising to the highest level recorded in a decade as a direct consequence.

The ICIBI operates independently of the Home Office and is responsible for examining the efficiency and effectiveness of the UK’s border and immigration functions, though the detail of its full report beyond the figures cited by the Home Office has not been independently summarised here.

How Much Will the Immigration Enforcement Budget Increase By?

The Home Office confirmed that the Home Secretary will double the Immigration Enforcement budget by the 2028 to 2029 financial year. The department said this funding increase was intended to support the scale-up in enforcement activity already under way, rather than to launch a new programme from scratch.

Alongside the budget increase, the Home Office said workforce numbers within Immigration Enforcement would grow by 60% compared with 2024 levels, with that expansion due to take place between 2026 and 2027. The department said the combined effect of more funding and more staff would be to deliver, in its words, tens of thousands more raids, arrests and deportations of illegal migrants.

What Will the Immigration and Asylum Bill Change?

The government has confirmed, via the King’s Speech, that it will bring forward an Immigration and Asylum Bill. According to the Home Office, the Bill will reform human rights laws that the department says have been used to frustrate removals, including aspects of modern slavery legislation and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the right to respect for private and family life.

The Home Office has framed this legislative change as a response to what it describes as abuse of these protections by illegal migrants seeking to avoid removal. The department has not published the full text of the Bill alongside this announcement, and further detail on its specific provisions is expected as the legislation progresses through Parliament.
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What Impact Will the Capacity Increase Have on Removals Capability?

The Home Office has been explicit in linking each additional detention space at Haslar and Campsfield to a greater capacity to remove offenders and illegal migrants from the UK. The department’s position is that detention capacity functions as a practical constraint on removals: without sufficient bed space, individuals awaiting deportation cannot be held pending their removal, which in turn limits how many removals can be carried out within a given period.

By tripling capacity at these two sites specifically, the Home Office said it expects to be able to process and remove a significantly higher number of foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers than current infrastructure allows, supporting the department’s projection that more than 45,000 removals will take place over the next decade.

What Has Been the Government’s Wider Enforcement Strategy Since Taking Office?

The Haslar and Campsfield expansion forms part of a broader pattern of enforcement measures the Home Office says it has introduced since taking office. The department has pointed to the near-70,000 removals carried out so far, the 41% increase in returns compared with the previous 21-month period, and the 36% rise in foreign national offender removals as evidence of a sustained shift in enforcement intensity.

The forthcoming doubling of the Immigration Enforcement budget and the planned 60% increase in workforce numbers are presented by the Home Office as the next stage of this strategy, designed to convert the additional detention capacity into a proportional rise in raids, arrests and deportations over the coming years.

What Happens Next for Illegal Migrants and Foreign Criminals in the UK?

With construction of the expanded capacity at Haslar and Campsfield under way, the Home Office has indicated that the scale of removals is expected to increase incrementally as new beds come into use, supported by the planned growth in Immigration Enforcement funding and staffing through to 2028 and 2029.

The passage of the Immigration and Asylum Bill through Parliament is likely to be a significant marker to watch in the coming months, given its stated aim of reforming the human rights provisions the Home Office says have been used to delay or prevent removals. Until the Bill’s full provisions are published, the precise legal mechanics of these reforms remain to be confirmed.

The Home Office said it would continue to report on removal and detention figures as the Haslar and Campsfield projects progress, with the department maintaining that the current trajectory of returns, the highest in close to a decade by its own measure, is expected to be sustained or exceeded as the new capacity becomes operational.