At least 10,000 rejected or missing asylum seekers are still in the UK ten years later

At least 10,000 rejected or missing asylum seekers are still in Britain ten years later, figures show.

Some are awaiting removal after exhausting their long and costly right to appeal.

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But almost a third have disappeared and are working in the informal economy.

Details of the huge backlog were revealed in Interior Ministry documents days after the end of the first deportation flight to Rwanda by European human rights judges.

Last night activists branded the £1.5bn asylum system as ‘a complete mess’.

Official statistics show that 6,414 asylum seekers whose application was rejected more than a decade ago are still living in the UK.

The whereabouts of a further 3,658 are unknown.

The revelations are putting renewed pressure on Home Secretary Priti Patel.

She branded the decision to enact last week’s £300,000 charter for Rwanda as “absolutely scandalous” – and vowed to keep fighting.

And Britain’s former US ambassador, Sir Christopher Meyer, said: “If I had been an adviser I would have said fly the damn plane anyway.”

The proliferation of small boats crossing the Channel has resulted in 37,000 destitute migrants being housed in hotels costing £4.7million every day.

A total of 115,000 asylum seekers in the UK are currently awaiting a decision, with 54,000 waiting more than three years.

MigrationWatch UK’s Alp Mehmet called the situation “a complete mess”.

A Home Office spokesman said: “The Nationality and Borders Act will fix the UK’s broken asylum system.”

SOME 300 migrants were arrested by border guards in Dover yesterday after crossing the Channel in small boats.