Image source, PA Media

By Callum May and Rob England

BBC News

The Home Office has revealed that only 408 non-Albanian small boat migrants have been returned to their home countries since 2020.

The figure emerged in a letter to MPs on the home affairs select committee (HASC).

Ministers have also revealed the full cost of the Bibby Stockholm asylum barge, moored in Dorset,

They disclosed it cost £22m, and said there had been no assessment of the vessel's value for money.

The number of returned asylum seekers emerged in a letter from Home Office officials, which revealed that since 2020 there had been 408 returns of non-Albanians who arrived by crossing the English Channel in a small boat.

Albanians made up a large proportion of small boat arrivals last year. Rishi Sunak reached an agreement with the Albanian government in December 2022, creating a new UK government unit to handle Albanian asylum cases and to remove them on regular flights.

The figure of 408 also excludes foreign convicted criminals, who the government is allowed to classify differently when they are returned.