The Home Office is scheduled to conduct the first deportation flights to Rwanda in July this year, excluding individuals who arrived in Britain via small boats over the previous year.
According to the government’s impact assessment, more than half of the asylum seekers assigned for removal to Rwanda are untraceable by the Home Office.
Out of nearly 6,000 individuals slated to receive a “Notice of Intent” that their asylum claim is inadmissible, only slightly over 2,000 have been located.
The Home Office indicates in a recent document that Rwanda has tentatively agreed to accept 5,700 asylum seekers from the UK, with just 2,143 attending regular check-ins and being locatable for detention.
The fate of the remaining 3,557 missing asylum seekers remains uncertain, with possibilities ranging from evading deportation by going underground to administrative errors resulting from transitions between different taxpayer-funded accommodations.
The policy dictates that only asylum seekers who arrived between July 1, 2022, and June 29, 2023, and were informed about the Rwanda plan through a notification letter fall under this category.
The initial deportation flights are scheduled for this July, excluding those who arrived in the UK by small boats the previous year.
The documented policy also anticipates “significant attention from MPs” on specific cases, potentially overwhelming Home Office staff and leading to delays or cancellations in removal procedures awaiting responses.
Members of Parliament can typically halt deportations until they obtain replies to their inquiries about specific cases. The new departmental guidance outlines the asylum claims process, stating that those granted asylum in Rwanda must remain there and are prohibited from re-entering Britain. Moreover, the document specifies that no individual will be repatriated from Rwanda, implying that unsuccessful claimants will also stay in the African country.
