The drive to deport more failed asylum-seekers has slumped dramatically as a result of the Government focusing on the problem of foreign national prisoners.

Figures published yesterday indicate that the number of failed asylum-seekers deported in the past quarter fell by 28 per cent — the lowest quarterly figures since the second quarter of 2004.

The Home Office is also failing to meet the Prime Minister’s pledge to remove more failed asylum-seekers than estimated unfounded asylum applications each month. When John Reid was appointed as Home Secretary in May, Mr Blair ordered him to make the meeting of his target for the removal of failed asylum-seekers a priority.

A total of 3,535 failed asylum-seekers and their dependants were deported in the three months to September — compared with 5,070 in the previous quarter. Within the overall figure, 810 applicants and their dependants — 22 per cent of the total — departed under voluntary return agreements, under which people are given financial packages to leave.

Officials had expected the number of unfounded asylum applications to be 4,500.

The sharp fall in the number of removals was recorded during the height of the controversy over the failure to consider foreign national prisoners for deportation. Officials suggested that one reason for the 28 per cent fall was because spaces in immigration detention centres were taken by foreign national prisoners rather than failed asylum-seekers.

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