Successive conservative governments squandered upwards of £700 million ($900 million) on an ill-advised plan to deport failed asylum seekers to Central Africa for processing and resettlement. The scheme, promptly cancelled by the new Labour government, saw just four people leave the UK for Rwanda. They did so voluntarily and were handed £3,000 in cash to help fund their new life in Africa.

On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper informed Parliament that the deportation plan had cost much more than previously thought: “It’s the most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money I’ve ever seen,” she told lawmakers. Mrs Cooper also revealed that her predecessor failed to properly inform Parliament of the policy’s total costs which according to Home Office numbers could have ballooned to £10 billion over the next six years.

The Rwanda Plan was conceived during the premiership of Boris Johnson in 2022 and later became the flagship of the Rishi Sunak government that foundered as the Tories suffered their biggest election defeat in living memory. Although the plan immediately drew criticism from legal experts and human rights groups, Prime Minister Sunak repeatedly insisted that the initiative would remove tens of thousands of asylum seekers from the UK and deter others from embarking on the perilous Channel crossing.

Court Grounds Plane

After a court of appeals in mid-2023 blocked the plan citing concerns over Rwanda’s own iffy human rights record, Mr Sunak simply signed a law declaring the country ‘safe’. In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights blocked a deportation flight, minutes before its scheduled take-off from Boscombe Down airbase near Amesbury in Wiltshire, a former RAF flight test facility now managed by a private company.

Over one thousand British civil servants were mobilised to help implement the scheme with hundreds of people rounded up in early dawn raids by immigration enforcement squads. The Home Office targeted about 2,400 migrants as early (and easy) candidates for removal and expected to dispatch at least 6,000 people to Rwanda this year.

For its cooperation Rwanda received upwards of £290 million in direct payments. Its government prepared facilities to receive the deportees and ease them into their new life. Home Secretary Cooper assured Parliament that she will do her utmost to recover part of the money spent on the scheme: “We’re currently auditing the plan but it is already clear that it was a complete con.”

The Rwandan government was quick to point out that the agreement with the UK did not contain a reimbursement clause. Doris Uwicyeza Picard, coordinator of the migration partnership with Great Britain, released a statement saying that her country was under ‘no obligation’ to refund monies already paid. The government in Kigali was promised £500 million for its cooperation.

Earlier, President Paul Kagame had suggested that he could authorise a refund in case no asylum seekers arrived in the country. President Kagame envisions his country as a haven for refugees fleeing war and political prosecution. He suggested Rwanda could welcome Africans evacuated or expelled from Libya and Afghan women escaping Taliban oppression. Mr Kagame spent his childhood as a refugee in Uganda and Congo (DRC) after the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. However, human rights groups have accused President Kagame of tolerating the ill treatment of refugees and failing to rein in the army which reportedly is involved in massacres of civilians.

Utter Failure

Though successive Tory leaders solemnly promised to reduce overall immigration numbers, and crack down on illegal arrivals, they utterly failed to do so, displaying a staggering level of incompetence. James Cleverly, the former Home Secretary who wholeheartedly endorsed the Rwanda Plan, had the cheek to accuse Mrs Cooper of “making up numbers” and said the new government has not formulated any proposal to stop the boats.

Whilst Rishi Sunak ran his election campaign on the pledge to Stop the Boats, his government was quite powerless to get a grip on immigration, both legal and illegal. Last year, 1.2 million people migrated into the UK and about 500,000 left the country. In 2023, slightly under 30,000 migrants managed to cross the Channel in small inflatable boats. Though that was significantly less than the around 46,000 who completed the crossing in 2022, this year’s numbers are on track for a record even before the start of the summer season when more benign weather conditions prevail.

Ironic Twist

In a twist not devoid of irony, Brexit – the UK’s departure from the European Union – was supposed to limit immigration but accomplished the opposite. In the two years following Britain’s disentanglement from the EU, net migration numbers shot up from barely 100,000 in 2020 to almost 800,000 three years later as fully documented newcomers flooded the country.

Fresh in Downing Street, Prime Minister Keith Starmer hopes that a ‘reset’ of relations with the EU, much deteriorated under his predecessors, may offer solace. He hinted at a comprehensive returns agreement that would allow Britain to sent illegal arrivals back across the Channel. The prime minister has also expressed an interest in securing the cooperation of Albania – a non-EU country – for the offshore processing of asylum claims. Albania currently processes such claims on behalf of Italy.

However, French president Emanuel Macron was not impressed and said that his country will not take the ‘full burden’ of migrants passing through on their way to the UK.

In a sign of the new direction taken by the UK, Prime Minister Starmer vowed that the UK will not leave the European Court of Human Rights as his predecessor had threatened to do after its justices intervened to stop a plane with deportees from departing.

The Starmer cabinet promises a tough but less spectacular (and costly) approach to illegal immigration, including the setting up up of a new border security command with ‘enhanced counter terrorism powers’ to pursue human traffickers and ‘smash’ their smuggling rings. To this end, the UK will strengthen its cooperation with Europol, the EU law enforcement agency.

Cover photo: ‘Up ahead, the White Cliffs of Dover!’ Migrants risk their life reaching the green and pleasant land.

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© 2021 Photo by Melanie Phillips