Almost 6,000 Channel migrants have vanished after their asylum applications were withdrawn, it has emerged.
The Home Office revealed they are “urgently” trying to “re-establish” contact with 5,598 failed asylum seekers.
Officials believe they are still in the UK and they are among 17,000 asylum seekers whose claims have been withdrawn in the 12 months to September 2023 after they failed to attend appointments or respond to letters from the Home Office.
Immigration ministers Michael Tomlinson and Tom Pursglove insisted they cannot work legally or access public services such as the NHS.
The shocking figures were revealed in a letter to the Home Affairs Select Committee from Mr Tomlinson and Mr Pursglove.
The pair wrote to the group of MPs after two top Home Office mandarins, Sir Matthew Rycroft and Simon Ridley, suggested they did not know where the 17,000 withdrawn asylum seekers were when they appeared before the committee late last year.
Mr Tomlinson and Mr Pursglove said this was “erroneous” and provided a breakdown of the 17,000.
Some 3,144 had left the UK and another 2,643 had been granted some form of “lawful immigration status” after being initially rejected.
A further 5,931 were still being actively investigated but 5,598 – 32 per cent of the total – were missing.
The ministers said the migrants could not legally work or access public or private services. “The Home Office has a dedicated tracing capability that works with the police, other government agencies and commercial companies to trace absconders,” they added.
“Where we obtain up-to-date contact details for a person from our tracing checks, we will then consider the most appropriate intervention, including whether to task an enforcement team to go and arrest them.
“Many individuals who are out of contact may voluntarily re-engage with the department or decide to leave the UK, others may come to light as a result of an encounter with the police, or during other enforcement activity such as an illegal working raid.”
