“Eighteen months after the then Home Secretary John Reid declared the Home Office was not fit for purpose it is clear that nothing has changed.

“The figures themselves confirm the Home Office has got very little control of any of the most basic elements of its immigration policy. We now know that every day three people who should be removed are managing to avoid it by starting a fight. 

“This is clearly unacceptable and makes a mockery of the law. We need much better enforcement.  “We cannot have a situation where thousands of people know they can avoid deportation by behaving violently. It is not only bad for our immigration policy, it is also worrying in terms of the safety of air crews and other passengers.”

A Home Office spokesman last night insisted the department’s figures were correct but that the wrong figures were published due to an “administrative error”.

Security industry experts claim that failed asylum seekers have developed a range of techniques for dodging deportation. 

As well as starting fights on the plane, others are said to have feigned illness and even stripped naked in a bid to avoid being sent home.