The Home Office has detained the first set of migrants for deportation to Rwanda, with flights set to take off at the beginning of July.
A week after Rishi Sunak’s controversial Safety of Rwanda Bill gained royal assent, the government said the first phase of detentions was underway for deportation flights.
James Cleverly said enforcement teams are working “at pace to swiftly detain those who have no right to be here” as part of the “pioneering” scheme.
The home secretary said: “This is a complex piece of work, but we remain absolutely committed to operationalising the policy, to stop the boats and break the business model of people smuggling gangs.”
Downing Street said the detentions were an “important part” of getting Rwanda flights off the ground.
Pressed on the timing – just one day before the local elections – No 10 said it was an “operational decision” by the Home Office.
But the prime minister’s press secretary added: “For our part there really is not a day to lose when people are dying in the channel”.
“People are ultimately breaking into our country so of course we want to get moving as rapidly as possible and the PM has always been consistent that he would move as quickly as he could.’
Home Office enforcement director Eddy Montgomery added: “Our specialist operational teams are highly trained and fully equipped to carry out the necessary enforcement activity at pace and in the safest way possible.
“It is vital that operational detail is kept to a minimum, to protect colleagues involved and those being detained, as well as ensuring we can deliver this large-scale operation as quickly as possible.”
Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said the detentions were causing “fear, distress and great anxiety amongst men, women and children who have fled war and persecution to reach safety in the UK”.
Mr Solomon said: “Children have been sending messages to our staff terrified that their age disputed status will put them at risk of removal to Rwanda. We have also seen a worsening in the mental health and wellbeing of people we work with in the asylum system.”
The Home Office said a series of operations took place across the country this week, with more activity due to be carried out in the coming weeks.
Officials have not yet said how many people have been detained, or where they were taken into custody.
The roundup came after the government paid a failed asylum seeker around £3,000 to voluntarily relocate to Rwanda.
Under a scheme running alongside the government’s controversial deportation agreement with the east African nation, ministers can pay failed asylum applicants up to £3,000 to get on a flight to Kigali.
And on Tuesday, an African man became the first to take the government up on its offer, just in time for Thursday’s local elections.
The unnamed man was handed around £3,000 to board a commercial flight to the Rwandan capital after his bid to stay in Britain was rejected at the end of last year, The Sun reported.
And it came as Labour was forced to deny it is rowing back on a promise not to deport a single person to Rwanda.
The party doubled down on its promise to scrap the Rwanda deportation scheme if it wins the election, amid mounting speculation it could send some asylum seekers to Kigali.
The party has promised not a single person will be deported to the east African nation if Sir Keir Starmer becomes prime minister, with the money from the scheme being diverted to border enforcement schemes and a returns agreement with the EU.
But. citing “senior Labour figures”, left-leaning magazine the New Statesman said the party is considering retaining the Rwanda scheme until its own returns policy is agreed.
“We can’t just come in, tear it up, and have nothing to put in its place,” one adviser said.
But the party distanced itself from the claim and repeated its promise to scrap the scheme in government. Pressed last week on whether in the “interim” period after coming into power, a Labour government wound send any asylum seekers to Rwanda, Yvette Cooper said: “No, that is not our plan.”
Labour has accused Mr Sunak of pursuing an “extortionate” gimmick in time for the local elections on Thursday. Ms Cooper said: “The Tories are so desperate to get any flight off to Rwanda before the local elections that they have now just paid someone to go.
“British taxpayers aren’t just forking out £3,000 for a volunteer to board a plane, they are also paying Rwanda to provide him with free board and lodgings for the next five years. This extortionate pre-election gimmick is likely to be costing on average £2 million per person.”
After two years of legal challenges and parliamentary wrangling, a controversial bill to get flights to Rwanda off the ground finally gained royal assent last week. The scheme, first announced by Boris Johnson in April 2022, aims to put those arriving in the UK on small boats on a one-way flight to Rwanda.
Mr Sunak hopes sending some asylum seekers to the east African nation will act as a deterrent against others making the perilous journey across the English Channel.
