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Sending asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost about £170,000 per person, according to a hotly anticipated economic impact report released by the UK government on Monday that has already come under fierce criticism from opponents of the scheme.
The Illegal Migration Bill going through parliament is part of the government’s attempt to crack down on the number of people making dangerous boat journeys across the Channel between France and the UK. More than 11,000 people have made the often life-threatening trip this year.
The Rwanda policy, announced in April 2022, would make those who have arrived “illegally” in Britain since January 2022 liable for removal. The plan has been heavily criticised by MPs from across the floor, with many railing against the likely significant cost to the British taxpayer.
The cost per individual of the relocations would be roughly £169,000 “over the multiyear lifetime of the scheme”, according to Home Office calculations. This includes an estimated £105,000 provided to the Rwandan authorities, a figure based on costs of a similar Syrian scheme; £19,000 to meet the costs incurred by the Home Office and Ministry of Justice; and £22,000 to cover the flights.
By contrast, the government estimates that the savings from not having to provide accommodation for the individual in question and not processing them through the UK’s migration system would be about £106,000. The total net cost per person would therefore be about £63,000, according to the economic analysis.
The government noted that because the scheme is “novel and untested” it was “uncertain what level of deterrence impact it will have”. It estimated, however, that about 40 per cent of people would have to be deterred from making the perilous journey for the government to break even.
“Our impact assessment shows that doing nothing is not an option,” home secretary Suella Braverman said. “I urge MPs and peers to back the bill to stop the boats, so we can crack down on people smuggling gangs while bringing our asylum system back into balance.”
The figures implied a total cost of £1.8bn if all 11,000 people who have arrived in the UK so far this year were to be deported.
Alison Thewliss, SNP home affairs spokesperson, said the “astronomical cost of this policy adds an extra layer of disgust in those already opposed to these plans”.
“At a time where so many are forced to flee persecution and unimaginable terrors, it speaks to the inhumane priorities of the Tories that they would seek to enforce this,” she said.
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, described the analysis as a “complete joke” that showed that the government is “totally clueless” about the actual cost of the policy.
The cost savings calculations were made on the assumption that 85 per cent of future illegal immigrants would require accommodation support for an average of four years, at a cost of about £85 per night.
The government’s embattled plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing was thwarted in June of last year when the first planned flight — which had been preparing to take off from a military base in Wiltshire — was grounded following a last-minute intervention from the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Appeal in London.
The Strasbourg-based ECHR, which deliberates on possible violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, ruled that one of seven migrants due to be deported, an Iraqi, should not be removed until after the policy had undergone a judicial review.
The policy is being deliberated by the Court of Appeal after the High Court ruled in December that it was lawful. A judgment is expected as soon as this week.
The UK has already provided Rwanda with an initial investment of £120mm as part of its migration and economic development partnership.
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