Migrants who used ECHR to dodge deportation last year ‘to cost taxpayers nearly £5billion over their lifetimes’
Migrants who used the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to avoid deportation last year will cost taxpayers nearly £5bn over their lifetimes, it was reported today.
The Home Office’s internal analysis has found that the cost of giving each asylum seeker the chance to stay in the UK because of their ‘right’ to family life is £141,000 over their lifetime.
The calculation assumed they would pay tax, the Daily Telegraph reported.
In 2025, approximately 35,000 people will be granted the right to stay in the UK under Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to family life.
This means the cost of funding health, education, welfare and pension bills will reach £4.9bn, according to the analysis.
This is almost equivalent to the £5bn Chancellor Rachel Reeves tried to cut from the welfare budget last year but had to abandon the plans after Labor backtracked.
The paper reported that £4.9bn was an underestimate because researchers did not take into account family members, writing: ‘This does not include the financial impact of dependents associated with the group.
‘Therefore, this should not be interpreted as the total financial cost of all individuals linked to Article 8 grants in 2025.’
Around 35,000 people will be granted the right to stay in the UK in 2025 under Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to family life, and many of these will likely have arrived on small boats.
The decision comes ahead of new planned restrictions on the ability of foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers to use Article 8 to prevent their deportation from the UK, due to be unveiled in the House of Commons tomorrow.
Immigrants may currently argue that deportation would be unduly harsh because it separates them from their families, or that they would suffer the pain of being displaced and sent to a country that may be foreign to their spouse or child.
This comes after a series of controversial cases emerged, including an Albanian criminal who escaped deportation partly because his son would not eat foreign chicken parts.
The Conservatives and the Reform Party have vowed to leave the ECHR if they win the next election, saying it is necessary to regain full control of Britain’s borders.
But Labor insisted it was important to stay in the controversial deal. Andy Burnham, who is expected to become the next prime minister within weeks, is also expected to make his case for remaining at the ECHR.
Robert Jenrick, Reform England’s economic spokesman and former Tory immigration minister, said: ‘The ECHR is allowing dangerous foreign criminals to remain in our country and it is now clear it is also costing the country a fortune.
‘The Conservatives refused to leave the ECHR despite campaigning by me and others. Only a Reform government led by Nigel Farage will do what is necessary to restore sanity to our immigration system.’
Estimates assumed that each migrant would start a low-paid job earning a wage of £19,619, with a third potentially unemployed. It subtracted the amounts they were expected to pay from direct income tax and indirect taxes such as VAT.
