A record 44 Nigerians and Ghanaians were deported on a single flight, the Home Office confirmed on Friday.

Meanwhile, asylum seekers arriving on Diego Garcia before the UK finalizes a treaty with Mauritius to return the Chagos Islands will be sent to Saint Helena, a remote British territory in the Atlantic. The Chagos Islands deal is expected next year, but about 60 Tamils who have been stranded on Diego Garcia since 2021 and are challenging their detention won't be part of the Saint Helena arrangement. A ruling on their case is pending.

While asylum numbers in Diego Garcia are in the hundreds, they are much lower than the tens of thousands crossing the Channel to the UK from northern France. The Home Office described the Nigeria and Ghana deportations as part of a “major surge” in immigration enforcement.

Since Labour came to power in July, 3,600 people have been returned to various countries, including about 200 to Brazil and 46 on a flight to Vietnam and Timor-Leste. There are also regular deportation flights to Albania, Lithuania and Romania.

Deportation flights to Nigeria and Ghana are relatively rare, with just four recorded since 2020, according to data released under freedom of information rules. The previous flights had far fewer people onboard, with six, seven, 16 and 21 respectively. Friday’s flight had more than double that number removed on a single flight.

The Guardian spoke to four Nigerians while they were held at Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick before their deportation. One man due to fly tried to kill himself. His cellmate, who witnessed the attempt, said he was “very traumatised” by what he had seen.

A second man said: “I’ve been in the UK for 15 years as an asylum seeker. I have no criminal record but the Home Office has refused my claim.”

A third man said he had been groomed into exploitation as a child and had torture scars on his body. “I told the Home Office I was a victim of trafficking. They rejected my claim.”

A fourth said he had desperately searched for a solicitor to challenge his removal directions, but had been unable to find anyone to represent him.

Fizza Qureshi, the chief executive of Migrants’ Rights Network, who was in contact with some of the people on the Nigeria/Ghana deportation flight before they left the UK, said: “We are extremely shocked at the cruelty of these deportations, especially with the speed, secrecy and the lack of access to legal support. In the words of one detainee we spoke to before he was put on the flight: ‘The Home Office is playing politics with people’s lives. We have not done anything wrong other than cry for help.’”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have already begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK and ensure the rules are respected and enforced, with over 3,600 returned in the first two months of the new government.”