More children to face deportation under government’s asylum crackdown | Politics News

More children will face deportation under Labour’s plan to crack down on asylum seekers, the Home Office has announced.

Families – including children – of failed asylum seekers will be offered financial support so they can return to their home country, the government has said.

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If they refuse that support, they will be forced to leave through deportation, according to the new policy, branded “restoring order and control”.

It says the asylum system currently does not prioritise the return of families, which means many families of failed asylum seekers continue to live in the UK “receiving free accommodation and financial support, for years on end”.

“Our hesitancy around returning families creates particularly perverse incentives,” the Home Office plan says.

It says asylum seekers are currently able to “exploit the fact that they have had children and put down roots in order to thwart removal”.

This includes about 700 Albanian families whose asylum claims have been rejected, but their removal is not being enforced because they have children.

The Home Office will launch a consultation on how it can deport families, including children.

Currently, families with children under the age of 18 at the point they are refused asylum continue to receive government support until the youngest child turns 18 – even if all appeals routes have been exhausted and they are refusing to be returned.