UK sends first asylum seeker to Rwanda under voluntary deportation scheme

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A man has been sent to Rwanda under a voluntary relocation scheme for failed asylum seekers set up by the UK government, in what officials are keen to present as a “proof of concept” for their enforced removal scheme.

Earlier this year, the government started offering failed asylum seekers who cannot be returned to their home country £3,000 to voluntarily relocate to Rwanda instead of remaining in the UK.

The first flight carrying a person to Rwanda under the scheme, which was first reported by the Sun, took off on Monday, according to a person briefed on the move.

The government refuses tens of thousands of asylum applications each year but, under international human rights law, is not permitted to return people to war-torn or authoritarian countries, including Afghanistan and Iran.

The voluntary payments programme is separate to the treaty signed between London and Kigali last year, under which the government hopes to forcibly remove asylum seekers arriving in the UK irregularly to the African nation to seek asylum there.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he planned to put the first flights in the air carrying asylum seekers to Rwanda under this as-yet untested scheme by July. He argues that it will deter other migrants looking to travel to the UK by small boats in search of refuge.

Sunak is facing a difficult week as the Conservatives brace for potentially catastrophic losses in the local and mayoral elections on Thursday, which could lead to a leadership challenge spearheaded by rebel Tory MPs.

Over the past year, he has sought to use a platform of being tough on migration to win over disillusioned voters.

Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, 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,” she said. “This extortionate pre-election gimmick is likely to be costing on average £2mn per person.”

A government spokesperson said: “We are now able to send asylum seekers to Rwanda under our migration and economic development partnership. This deal allows people with no immigration status in the UK to be relocated to a safe third country where they will be supported to rebuild their lives.”

Sunak’s Rwanda plan has faced successive setbacks over the past two years, including a Supreme Court ruling that the scheme was unlawful because Rwanda could not be considered a safe country.

The government responded by drafting legislation — which entered the statute books this month — designating Rwanda as a safe country and disapplying tracts of British human rights law that could leave the scheme open to legal challenge.

The scheme — which the UK’s spending watchdog warned could cost the government more the £500mn — has faced criticism from opposition parties and migrant rights groups who argue it will not have the deterrent effect the Tories claim.