More than 5,600 migrants have been shortlisted for deportation flights to Rwanda, the Daily Express can reveal.
An internal Home Office document – seen by this newspaper – stated “5,664 individuals are currently in scope for potential inclusion for relocation to Rwanda”.
Around 3,000 of this cohort are also being “supported”, meaning they are living in taxpayer-funded hotels or asylum accommodation.
Home Secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday told MPs the £240 million Rwanda scheme is “uncapped” but insisted he could not “speculate” about how many migrants will be deported to Kigali.
Mr Cleverly said the number will depend on how many returns agreements the Government can strike with countries around the World.
The Home Affairs Select Committee heard that 33,085 illegal migrants have arrived in the UK since new laws came into force in July banning them from claiming asylum.
The Home Secretary told MPs: “It may well be if we’re successful with returns agreements, if circumstances in other countries change, it may well be that the figure is quite low.
“It could be nearly at that figure [33,000], but the point is the number of people that we might send to Rwanda is entirely contingent on a whole set of other work that we’re doing.”
He said it was “entirely feasible a significant number within that cohort will be returned to their country of origin”, adding more returns agreements could “have a very significant impact”.
But the Daily Express can reveal, despite being defeated in the Supreme Court and facing a showdown with the House of Lords, that the Government is laying the groundwork for the first flights to take off.
A document seen by the Daily Express stated: “5,664 individuals are currently in scope for potential inclusion for relocation to Rwanda”.
This was “as of January 18”. The document, prepared for Home Secretary James Cleverly ahead of his appearance before MPs, added that “at least 3,000 are being supported by the Home Office”.
Former Immigration Minister Kevin Foster told the Daily Express: “It’s right the Home Office is making significant preparations to get this major plan underway.
“Whilst there has been much focus on legislation in Parliament, the logistical challenge should not be underestimated as well.
“I suspect within this large cohort will be a much smaller group the Home Office would see as potential candidates for the first flights.”
Former minister Neil O’Brien added: “There are large numbers of people who should not be in the UK, who we have not been able to deport because of a thicket of legal obstacles.
“Court judgements have expanded opportunities to block deportation to an absurd extent and dangerous people are on our streets as a result.
“People know that if they come here illegally from perfectly safe countries like France they will not be deported even if their asylum claim is rejected.
“Until we change that and restore our ability to deport more and more people will force their way in illegally, which is unfair to those who play by the rules.
“We need to ensure that the courts and the House of Lords do not scupper attempts to restore our inability to deport people who should not be here.”
The UK has paid Rwanda £240m under the Prime Minister’s plan to “stop the boats”, but ministers currently expect to pay an additional £50m.
Only 1,040 small boat arrivals who weren’t foreign convicted criminals have been deported to their home country in the last three years.
And the Home Office is facing growing scrutiny over 33,085 asylum seekers living in the UK.
Officials have been warned they cannot claim asylum because they arrived after the Illegal Migration Bill was passed. But the Government cannot deport them either because of a lack of returns agreements, effectively leaving them in ‘limbo’.
The Government’s sweeping asylum reforms are meant to see illegal migrants “detained and swiftly removed”.
Dan Hobbs, Director General for the Migration and Borders Group at the Home Office, told MPs: “Unless there were other mitigating circumstances, they would be on bail.”
Asked how many of the migrants he thinks the Home Office could contact, Mr Hobbs said: “I can’t give you a direct percentage, but a number of them will be in accommodation. All of them are expected to report and many will be accommodated by the Home Office.”
Conservative MP Tim Loughton added: “Are you satisfied that we could have a number of people, which is roughly double the earlier queried cohort of 17,000, whom we don’t know where they are?
“They have no status in this country under the terms of the Illegal Migration Act.
“They are at large in the UK, and could turn out to be missing on a greater scale than was originally the Home Office was able to account for.”
Mr Cleverly responded: “I don’t agree with the word missing.
“But I am not comfortable with many of the figures.
“In terms of maintaining contact with individuals, we don’t routinely detain asylum seekers. To do so would be incredibly costly, it would dwarf the cost of our accommodation which we are reducing.
“And we’ve made the point that non-compliance has consequences.”
More than 1,000 migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year. But the danger of the perilous crossings was highlighted again yesterday as asylum seekers were rescued from the sea after “a number of incidents” off the coast of Kent.
The Home Office’s permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft told the committee the Bibby Stockholm barge housing asylum seekers in Portland, Dorset, currently costs £120 per person per night to run, compared with the latest average of £140 per person per night in hotels.
The running costs “exclude set-up costs” and mean the barge “still meets the value for money test”, he said in a letter to committee chairwoman Dame Diana Johnson.
“When those are included, there is a total-life saving from use of the Bibby Stockholm of £800,000.”
The overall price per person changes depending on how many people are on board and the average hotel costs also “fluctuate” as the Government seeks to end the use of such accommodation.
Meanwhile, Mr Cleverly also had a tussle with Labour committee chair Dame Diana Johnson over whether the 94,000 asylum claims awaiting a decision is a “backlog”.
The Home Secretary told her: “You keep describing it as a backlog – it’s the caseload. It’s a queue. I think your use of the word backlog implies something that I disagree with.”
“There are a number of cases that we’re working through. At any given time someone who has arrived will be added to the caseload, by your definition if someone arrived yesterday that would be a backlog,” said the Tory cabinet minister
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Rwanda scheme is uncapped. The number of people who will be removed to Rwanda will depend on a range of factors.
“We do not comment on leaks.”
