Report: UK Spends $28,000 Per Migrant On Deportation Flight

I recently lamented the high cost of migrant flights carrying criminal aliens out of the United States, but it appears this is hardly unique to the USA, with the UK also transporting migrants out of the British Isles at a tremendous cost.

Migrant Charter Flights Are Pricey in UK Too

Gone are the days of secretive transports hidden from media scrutiny. As Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer seeks to show his country that Labour is tough on immigration, the UK Home Office produced a video of a recent deportation flight to Albania.

The Daily Telegraph, a venerable London publication dating back to 1855, recently covered the high cost of this flight, which cost an estimated 1 million GBP (about 1.26 million USD) or the equivalent of nearly 28,000 USD per migrant.

The Home Office contracts with private security escorts (3-4 per migrant) who carry leg restraints, waste restraints, and handcuffs just in case an asylum seeker tries to fight back and resist removal. On the flight in question, 47 migrants with three guards each flew on a chartered Airbus A321 aircraft to Albania.

Is it necessary to spend so much money to transport these folks out of a nation?

My problem is not removing illegals from countries in which they do not belong, but the high cost of doing so. The A321 transporting migrants from the UK to Albania had only 47 migrants onboard because each migrant had three guards. But if 3-4 guards surrounding the migrant were necessary on a charter aircraft, why not put them on a Ryanair or Wizzair flight with the same number of guards? If you shackle them and have guards around them, then I doubt they will disturb anyone onboard. If you put the on first and take them off last, it may not be as comfortable as a chartered A321, but it won’t cost $28,000/migrant.

I’m not interested in the “there’s so much government waste, what difference does this make?” line of argument.

I’m just fascinated by the theatrics of these flights and how much they cost…on both sides of the Atlantic.