A major operation to round up asylum seekers across the UK before deportation to Rwanda is being launched today, weeks ahead of schedule, it has been claimed.
Home Office officials plan to nab refugees to arrive for routine meetings at immigration service officers and will also pick up people across the nation in a fortnight-long operation.
Such detentions will prompt lengthy legal battles, community protests and police clashes, lawyers and campaigners have warned – with officers in Scotland on high alert.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, told the Guardian: “The government is determined to recklessly pursue its inhumane Rwanda plan despite the cost, chaos and human misery it will unleash. We know it is likely to cause a catastrophic system meltdown.
“Even if a few thousand people are removed to Rwanda this year, there will be tens of thousands of refugees who have fled from countries like Afghanistan, Sudan and Syria, stranded in permanent limbo in the UK, likely to fall out of contact with services and face the risk of exploitation and abuse.
“This could be avoided if the government opted instead to operate a fair, effective and humane asylum system.”
The plan is to transfer people straight to pre-prepared detention centres, in advance of putting them on planes to Rwanda. Some will go on the first flight which the Government have pencilled in to take off in the summer.
Ratification of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Safety of Rwanda Act meant “the government is entering the final phase of operationalising this landmark policy to tackle illegal migration and stop the boats”, a Home Office spokesman said.
They added: “At some stage inevitably this will include detaining people in preparation for the first flight, which is set to take off to Rwanda in 10 to 12 weeks. It would be inappropriate to comment further on operational activity.”
The start of the Home Office’s detention operation comes in advance of Thursday’s local council elections in England, with the Tories facing heavy defeats.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Sunak said that cracking down on illegal migration was central to the Tory campaign.
He told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips: “To detain people while we prepare to remove them, we’ve increased detention spaces to 2,200.
“To quickly process claims, we’ve got 200 trained, dedicated caseworkers ready and waiting. To deal with any legal cases quickly and decisively, the judiciary have made available 25 courtrooms and identified 150 judges who could provide over 5,000 sitting days.”
Police in Scotland have been put on alert as a result of a high risk of street protests and possible plans to hijack detentions.
Scottish communities have two foiled deportations by staging mass protests, in Kenmure Street in Glasgow in May 2021, and in Nicolson Square, Edinburgh, in June 2022. On both occasions, hundreds swarmed around immigration enforcement vehicles.
Glasgow-based human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, who was involved in the Kenmure Street protests, warned Police Scotland and the Scottish government they needed to be certain what they were being asked to do was lawful.
He said: “People are extremely angry and upset, and ready to mobilise.
“I suspect in the coming days we will see an explosion of the spirit of Kenmure Street across the UK, opposing a policy that will lead to misery, self-harm and death, driving so many more into the arms of people smugglers.”
Labour MP Kim Johnson, a member of the home affairs committee, said: “Rishi Sunak and his government are determined to prove this scheme will work, when everyone apart from the Tories know it is an abject failure.
“Detaining desperate people who have been languishing in a state of uncertainty for far too long, and using them for political point-scoring, is amoral. It sums up this government, and that’s why we need a general election ASAP, to get rid once and for all.”
Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesman, said the “cruel political gimmick” was “the sound of the bottom of the barrel being scraped”.
He continued: “The Rwanda scheme is immoral, unworkable and expensive for taxpayers.”
Sonya Sceats, chief executive of Freedom from Torture, added: “Compassionate people up and down the country will be sickened by this performative cruelty designed to generate headlines and stoke fear among people fleeing torture and persecution. This is not who we are as a country.”
A Scottish government spokesperson said: “We have been absolutely clear in our opposition to the Rwanda bill since it was introduced. The UK should be upholding the 1951 UN refugee convention and supporting people in need of protection, not undermining international protection.
“The UK government should focus on improving the UK asylum system, so that people are treated fairly and with dignity and respect throughout the process. UK government asylum policy and legislation has a significant impact on people living in our communities as well as on local authorities who play a critical role in supporting asylum seekers and refugees.”
