The Home Office is recruiting a new chief to speed up the deportation of people whose asylum claims to the UK are rejected.
The Head of the National Returns Progression Command will be paid between £76,000 and £86,000, with annual employer pension contribution of at least £22,000, as the new Labour Government makes increasing deportations a major part of its strategy to deal with the “small boats” Channel crisis.
He or she will also play a key role in increasing the number of people who overstay their visa time limit who are returned to their home country.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ditched the Tories failed Rwanda deportation scheme and is instead banking on a new Border Security Command, using anti-terrorism style powers, to smash people trafficking gangs, and clearing the asylum case backlog to get control over Britain’s borders.
The job advert for the new deportation chief states: “The National Returns Progression Command (NRPC) is the pivotal Home Office capability whose mission is to maximise the return of all immigration offenders (illegal entrants, overstayers, failed asylum seekers) through both enforced and voluntary returns whilst ensuring individuals are dealt with in a dignified manner, utilising a strong set of safeguards to identify and manage vulnerabilities.
“The head of NRPC will play a vital leadership role in the Government’s major transformation plan to overhaul the asylum system, ensuring in particular that various returns components are transformed and fit for purpose.”
Core parts of the job are:
* Leading on “detained returns” to ensure deportation of these individuals from point of detention through to removal, dealing with any barriers and “managing any vulnerabilities”.
* Leading on “non-detained case progression” so individuals without permission to stay in the UK are dealt with either by removing barriers to return and tasking for enforcement action, or by “signposting” to other parts of the Home Office to regularise their status.
* Leading on the issue of “third country returns”, where individuals are sent or go back to a country other than their country of origin.
* Leading on “family returns” to secure the safe returns of families with children who have no lawful basis to remain in the UK.
* Leading on “voluntary returns” to support individuals who wish to leave the UK voluntarily.
The role involves managing a budget of some £40 milllion, working with ministers in a “sharp political spotlight” and managing and leading six senior civil servants and about 1,000 staff, at 15 different locations.
The Home Office is also expanding its work to stop migrants who throw away their passport from being able to avoid deportation.
Around 32,000 people have crossed the Channel in “small boats” so far this year, with 5,417 in October, the highest number for two years.
Nine out of ten people arriving in the UK by “small boats” from 2018 to March 2024 claimed asylum and of those who had received a decision by 31 March 2024, around three quarters were successful, according to the Migration Observatory at Oxford University.
