LONDON, Feb. 26: In a major crackdown against illegal immigrants, Britain is deporting one person after every eight minutes, one of the highest number of deportations for any European country.

Figures released by the British Home Office on Tuesday show that during 2007, Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) removed 63,140 people from the UK.

Moreover,12,525 failed asylum seekers, excluding dependents, were also removed from the United Kingdom.

As a result of crackdown, the asylum applications in Britain during 2007 were at their lowest level for 14 years some 23,430 principal asylum applications lodged, representing the lowest number of annual applications since 1993.

During the sweeping programme of border reform launched last year, British authorities searched over one million lorries to check they were not harbouring illegal immigrants.

The Home Office says the British government is committed to expanding the detention estate by the end of the year to increase the number of people who can be removed from the UK.

As the crackdown continues against illegal immigrants, mostly South Asians and Africans, the immigrants from the European Union are being preferred.

Home Office says some 30,570 Bulgarians and Romanians registered to work in the UK during 2007 while an additional 7,295 were issued cards for the Seasonal Agricultural Workers scheme in 2007.