The Home Office has defended chartering a private jet to deport one man back to Morocco.
The removal of the convicted cyberterrorist Younes Tsouli earlier this year on a chartered flight was deemed to be the safest way to remove him from Britain, a government spokesperson said.
Tsouli was jailed for 16 years in 2007 after he pleaded guilty to incitement to commit acts of terrorism on the internet. He was deported after failing to win a bid to stay in the UK on human rights grounds.
The Home Office said that charter flights were used to remove individuals who posed a risk to the public or had previously tried to resist being deported.
Some 2,418 people were deported on chartered flights in 2014 out of a total of 12,627 who were removed.
The total government bill for removing people who did not have the right to be in the UK in 2014/15 was £29.6m. That figure included the costs of tickets on scheduled flights, as well as charter flights and ticket contract management costs.
Many comply with an order to leave the UK, but others have to be forcibly removed.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Decisions on return flights take into account the availability of scheduled aircraft routes, the cost of maintaining individuals’ detention and the circumstances of each case. We always seek to use the most cost-effective method of removal possible.
“Although last-minute legal challenges can delay some removals, this government has legislated to make it harder for people to lodge spurious appeals, and we are going further in our new immigration bill.”
The bill would make it easier to remove people by extending the use of the “deport now, appeal later” provision.
A chartered flight for 107 failed Afghan asylum seekers was abandoned at the last minute in August after the court of appeal ruled that their home country was not safe.
In September last year a 265-seat plane was used to transport 29 Afghans, who were accompanied by 70 staff. In April 2014 26 Albanians were deported on an aircraft that could seat just over 200 people.
Some of the figures were revealed following a freedom of information request made by the Daily Mail.
