There are three types of returns: enforced returns, which are carried out directly by the Home Office; voluntary returns, who are people who were facing deportation but left of their own accord, sometimes with support from the Home Office; and port returns, who are people refused entry to the UK and who have subsequently departed.
The latest figures also show there were 485 enforced and voluntary returns in the three months to December of migrants who had arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel in small boats.
There were 25,186 voluntary returns in 2024, the highest annual number since 2016, and 23,009 port returns, down from 24,697 in 2023.
Dame Angela Eagle, Home Office minister for border security and asylum, said: “Over the last six years, legal migration soared, a criminal smuggler industry was allowed to establish itself in the Channel, and the asylum system was broken.
The number of enforced returns of people who do not have a right to stay in the UK has jumped to the highest level in six years.
