The government is set to “intensify” its crackdown on illegal migrants living in Northern Ireland.
According to a government source, the Home Office is ramping up immigration enforcement efforts to “track down, detain, arrest and remove” illegal migrants.
This will see a “surge in intelligence-led operations” carried out by Immigration Enforcement officers and Border Force personnel along Common Travel Area routes.
The Home Office claims that nearly 1,000 illegal migrants have been removed over the past year.
This comes amid mounting pressure on the government from unionist parties to tackle the number of migrants entering Northern Ireland illegally from the Republic of Ireland.
According to government figures, since Labour came to power there have been 2,682 “raids to detain and remove” illegal migrants, which the government claims is a 16% increase compared with the final 21 months of the Conservative government.
As a result of those operations, the number of people detained or arrested for immigration offences has risen to 2,233.
According to the government, around 70% of immigration enforcement activity is carried out through Operation Gull, an intelligence-led Common Travel Area (CTA) operation at Northern Ireland’s domestic air and sea ports.
As a result of this operation, more than 900 immigration offenders were detected last year, allegedly “abusing and circumventing the Common Travel Area rules”.
“The three most frequently encountered nationalities were Romanian (83), Albanian (44) and Afghan (30),” the government source said.
Meanwhile, the number of asylum seekers in supported accommodation in Northern Ireland now stands at 2,379, down from previous levels.