'Deport now, appeal later' scheme for foreign criminals expanded to 23 countries

A hostile environment era deportation policy for criminals is being expanded by the Labour government as it continues its migration crackdown.

The government wants to go further in extraditing foreign offenders before they have a chance to appeal by including more countries in the existing scheme. Offenders that have a human right appeal rejected will get offshored, and further appeals will then get heard from abroad.

It follows the government announcing on Saturday that it wants to deport criminals as soon as they are sentenced. The "deport now, appeal later" policy was first introduced when Baroness Theresa May was home secretary in 2014 as part of the Conservative government's hostile environment policy to try and reduce migration.

It saw hundreds of people returned to a handful of countries like Kenya and Jamaica under Section 94B of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, added in via amendment. In 2017, a Supreme Court effectively stopped the policy from being used after it was challenged on the grounds that appealing from abroad was not compliant with human rights.

However, in 2023, then home secretary Suella Braverman announced she was restarting the policy after providing more facilities abroad for people to lodge their appeals. Now, the current government says it is expanding the partnership from eight countries to 23.

Previously, offenders were being returned to Finland, Nigeria, Estonia, Albania, Belize, Mauritius, Tanzania and Kosovo for remote hearings. Angola, Australia, Botswana, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Uganda and Zambia are the countries being added - with the government wanting to include more.

Read more:Govt vows to deport foreign criminals immediatelyFirst migrants detained under returns deal with France The Home Office claims this is the "the government's latest tool in its comprehensive approach to scaling up our ability to remove foreign criminals.