Illegal Migrants: Unknown Whereabouts

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 9th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rupert Lowe]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his helpful intervention.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Gentleman for securing the debate. He has illustrated with the story that he has related, and by citing the evidential base, how bad things are. Data from the Home Office—I checked this before the debate—shows that, as of October 2025, 53,298 migrants had breached their immigration bail or absconded from detention, which means that their whereabouts were unknown. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that this only adds to the stress in our communities, including that caused to the health and housing systems, and that more must be done to find those who have illegally breached immigration bail and deport them to their countries of origin?

[Rupert Lowe]

I thank the hon. Member for that intervention, and I will come to that point in a minute, but I completely concur.

To recap, I asked the Home Office

“what information the Department holds on the number of irregular migrants defined as absconders.”

A Minister replied:

“The requested data is not readily accessible from published statistics, and could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at a disproportionate cost.”

That was not true.

On 3 September, I asked the Home Secretary

“what estimate she has made of the number of foreign nationals who have absconded after being served with a deportation order.”

The answer, from a different Minister, was:

“The Home Office does not hold any central record of the requested information.”

That was not true.

On 24 November, I questioned the Home Office permanent secretary in the Public Accounts Committee on the number of illegal migrants who have absconded from Home Office accommodation in the past five years. I got no concise answer.

During all this, a Home Office whistleblower presented themselves with these figures, in black and white, regularly disseminated within the Home Office. The actual data is as follows: there are 736 foreign criminals in the total absconder pool for foreign national offenders. That is 736 foreign criminals who have been released from prison and then absconded before deportation. Please think about that: 736 criminals—rapists, murderers, paedophiles. They were meant for deportation but have escaped into the community—736 of them. It is a terrifying thought.

Overall, the total absconder pool stands at 53,298, largely referring to the number of illegal migrants who were once in the system and whose current whereabouts is unknown.