More than 33,000 migrants face deportation to Rwanda
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More than 33,000 migrants face deportation to Rwanda if flights get off the ground, Home Office figures revealed on Tuesday.
Some 33,085 applications for asylum have been lodged since Rishi Sunak’s “stop the boats” legislation became an Act in July, giving ministers powers to detain any illegal migrants and deport them to a safe third country such as Rwanda.
It means they are liable under the legislation to have their applications declared “inadmissible” and face deportation to Rwanda, where they will have to claim asylum.
The Prime Minister is attempting to secure the first deportation flights this spring if he can get his Rwanda Bill through the Commons after the Supreme Court ruled the policy unlawful.
He faces threats of rebellion from both wings of his party over the controversial legislation, which seeks to further restrict the rights of migrants to mount legal challenges to their deportation and to address the concerns of the Supreme Court.
The Rwanda scheme is seen as critical in providing a deterrent to “stop the boats.” However, even if flights take off, ministers have acknowledged the numbers deported will initially be small.
In evidence to the Supreme Court, Sir James Eadie, the Government’s lawyer, told the judges it would be “limited” at the start. The UK has so far committed at least £290 million to the five-year Rwanda agreement.
“Both participants recognise the need for capacity building – the UK has provided funds for the same, the Rwandan authorities have taken measures in terms of recruitment and training, and the numbers are, initially, low,” said Sir James.
Rwanda has established initial accommodation at Hope Hostel in Kigali with capacity for 200 migrants, although it is constructing houses and flats for asylum seekers and has previously said it can take as many as Britain sends.
The Refugee Council has estimated that Rwanda has the capability to accept no more than 10,000 migrants a year once the scheme becomes fully operational, which it says would leave at least 25,000 people a year in limbo.
The figures were revealed in data published by the Home Office following Mr Sunak’s claim to have achieved his pledge to clear the backlog of more than 90,000 “legacy” asylum cases that predate June 2022.
This claim is disputed by Labour and refugee charities who have pointed to 4,500 unresolved “complex” cases within the 91,000. These have yet to be decided because the Government says there are outstanding security concerns, disputes over the age of the asylum seeker or unresolved criminal issues.
The data also showed that there is still an outstanding backlog of 98,000 further asylum applications yet to be decided.
These come on top of the processed 91,000 and a further 20,000 submitted after June 2022 that have been cleared – coming to a total of 112,000.
On Tuesday, James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, admitted it was “impossible” to say how long it would take to get through these outstanding asylum cases. “The point is that it’s impossible to say and I’m not going to make predictions,” he told the Today programme.
However, he said claims were being processed ten times faster after a doubling in the number of asylum caseworkers and streamlining of bureaucracy. “Last year we processed 112,000 cases, the largest in over 20 years, so again you know you can see the maths,” he said.
The figures also showed that of the 112,000 “cleared” applications, there were 35,119 cases which were either declared void, suspended or withdrawn, where asylum seekers failed to respond to interview call-ups or letters within the specified period and so saw their claims rejected.
This has led to claims that the asylum seekers have gone “missing” or disappeared into the “black economy”. The numbers of “withdrawn” cases have more than doubled in three years from nine per cent of claims to a quarter.
Last month, top Home Office officials admitted to MPs on the home affairs committee that they did not know the whereabouts of 17,316 asylum applications whose cases had been withdrawn in the past year. They later corrected their admission, saying there were records of them, enabling enforcement action.
On Tuesday, Mr Cleverly told the BBC that withdrawn applicants who sought to hide in the black market would be tracked down, saying: “If they try to slip into the illicit economy for example, we significantly increase the raids on illegal working, so ultimately we find these people.
“We go looking at places where we know people work illegally so often in the clothing trade, sometimes in the restaurant trade, in the building trade, we know where these people go and typically work, often cash in hand, often undocumented, we go and find them and we remove them.”
The data also showed the number of illegal migrants removed from the UK has halved in the past seven years, from 40,000 in 2016 to 24,000 last year. This is despite a two-thirds increase in voluntary and enforced returns in the past year.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said it was false to claim the “legacy” backlog had been cleared when there 4,500 cases “not done”, 17,000 were “withdrawn”, where the Home Office had “no idea where those people are”, and the rest of the backlog had doubled to 99,000.
“Returns of failed asylum seekers are down 50 per cent compared to the last Labour government. Only five per cent of Albanians who came on small boats to the UK have been returned. £400 million on the failing Rwanda plan and no-one sent,” shewrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“Gimmicks instead of grip. Failing to stop criminal gangs undermining border security, failing to clear backlog, end hotel use, implement returns or properly manage the asylum system. With a record of failure like that, Rishi Sunak should stop the… boasts.”
