Exclusive footage has revealed the extraordinary reality of Britain’s foreign criminal deportation programme, showing convicted killers, thieves and sexual abusers being escorted onto flights whilst clutching bank cards loaded with £2,000 of taxpayers’ money.
The unprecedented video, filmed by ITV News on a deportation flight to Romania, marks the first time journalists have been permitted to document the controversial process that sees serious offenders removed from Britain partway through their prison sentences.
The footage captures the tense atmosphere as 47 foreign national offenders (FNOs), including six women, are escorted up aircraft stairs by up to half a dozen security staff per prisoner. Some of the most dangerous criminals are shown being placed in restraints before boarding the plane in an operation costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of pounds.
In stark scenes that have sparked political controversy, deportees are shown receiving bank cards pre-loaded with £2,000 as part of the government’s Facilitated Return Scheme – a financial incentive designed to encourage voluntary departure rather than fighting deportation through lengthy legal challenges.
The criminals, who originally entered the UK legally but forfeited their right to remain by committing serious offences, are instructed to withdraw the cash upon arrival in Romania to help with resettlement. Upon landing, they walk free, with Romanian authorities greeting but not detaining them.
The ITV coverage begins inside a deportation centre near Heathrow Airport, where journalists questioned some of those facing removal. One man, who had lived in Britain for 10 years, expressed reluctance to return home. Another refused to disclose the nature of his crimes when pressed by reporters.
The complex logistics of the operation are laid bare in the footage, revealing the enormous resources required for each deportation. Every foreign offender requires a minimum of three escorts, whilst the most disruptive or dangerous individuals need six staff members and separate transport in individual vans. In total, removing 47 people required almost 100 staff across seven buses.
The flights operate under cover of darkness to minimise disruption from potential protests, with convoys travelling through the night to undisclosed airports. The Home Office has refused to confirm which airlines or airports are used for security reasons.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, viewing the footage for the first time, conceded the optics were problematic. “Out of context, it’s not great, it doesn’t look good,” she admitted in her first major interview since taking office earlier this month.
However, she robustly defended the scheme on economic grounds: “A voluntary removal is actually cheaper for the British taxpayer. It has long been the case that we do offer financial packages as an incentive to people to drop their claims and drop the attempts they make to stay in our country, and to board a flight and leave.”
The financial logic is compelling – with each prison place costing £54,000 annually, the £2,000 payment represents a fraction of the cost of continued incarceration. Currently, nearly 11,000 foreign offenders occupy British prison cells, accounting for more than one in eight of all prisoners and costing taxpayers nearly £600 million per year.
Multiple FNO flights depart Britain weekly, transporting offenders to various countries. Last year alone, 5,000 foreign criminals were deported, with the government now prioritising accelerated removals to address chronic prison overcrowding.
The revelations come amid mounting pressure on the government’s broader deportation strategy. Mahmood has vowed to “do whatever it takes to secure our border” and promised to “ramp up” the controversial “one-in, one-out” deportation scheme agreed with France in July.
However, that programme has faced embarrassing setbacks. Earlier this month, The Sun newspaper boarded an Air France flight from Heathrow to Paris that had been reserved for deportations, only to discover it took off completely empty of asylum seekers. Last-minute legal challenges from charities and lawyers had blocked all planned removals, leaving several pairs of seats vacant on the 45-minute flight.
The failure was particularly humiliating given initial projections that 50 migrants weekly would be returned to France under the scheme. Instead, just three asylum seekers have been successfully deported since its launch, despite 155 migrants being detained in August and held at Harmondsworth Removal Centre, just ten minutes from Air France’s Terminal 4 base.
Meanwhile, approximately 5,000 people have successfully crossed the Channel during the same period, highlighting the scheme’s limited impact as a deterrent.
Activist groups have intensified resistance to deportations. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants circulated guidance to members describing deportations as “violent, abusive and oppressive,” encouraging supporters to contact airline staff and pilots to raise welfare concerns about passengers facing removal.
The footage emerges as the government implements sweeping changes to deportation rules. New legislation introduced in August allows foreign criminals to be deported immediately upon sentencing, eliminating the previous requirement that they serve at least 50 percent of their sentence in British prisons.
Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick criticised the approach: “In Starmer’s topsy-turvy world, investors are fleeing the country in their droves while record numbers of violent and sexual offenders from abroad are put up in our prisons. It’s a farce.”
He demanded tougher action, including suspension of visas and foreign aid to countries refusing to accept their deported nationals.
The timing of the revelations is particularly sensitive following this week’s sentencing of Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu to 12 months imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. The case, which sparked nationwide protests, has intensified debate over foreign offender deportations.
Right up until boarding, foreign offenders regularly mount legal challenges to their removal, often citing human rights legislation. The deportation process involves extensive security measures, with those being removed banned permanently from returning to the UK.
I’m very happy,” one deportee told ITV News upon landing in Romania. “I’ll stay here and never come back to London. I was in an immigration centre for four months.
The government maintains that deportations have increased by 14 percent since July 2024, with almost 5,200 foreign national offenders removed. Officials argue the programme is essential to the Plan for Change, aimed at restoring border control and improving public safety.
For each asylum seeker successfully returned to France under the “one-in, one-out” scheme, Britain has agreed to accept one pre-vetted refugee with a genuine claim through safe and legal routes. The programme was designed to deter dangerous Channel crossings that claim dozens of lives annually.
However, with empty deportation flights and minimal returns achieved so far, critics argue the scheme has failed to deliver its promised deterrent effect. The government faces mounting pressure to demonstrate progress, particularly as prison overcrowding reaches crisis levels.
Mahmood insisted she would continue expanding deportation programmes, promising further announcements “in the weeks to come” about plans to increase removal numbers. Since taking her role, she has emphasised determination to tackle both illegal immigration and foreign criminality.
The footage provides unprecedented insight into the complex moral and logistical challenges of deportation policy. While the £2,000 payments may save money compared to lengthy incarceration, the image of convicted criminals receiving taxpayer-funded cash whilst being escorted onto planes presents obvious political difficulties.
As Britain grapples with record prison populations, ongoing Channel crossings, and heated debates over immigration, the deportation programme remains a contentious but potentially cost-effective element of government strategy.
The revelation that such flights operate multiple times weekly, removing thousands of foreign offenders annually, underscores both the scale of the challenge and the resources required to address it.
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