Minister insists thousands of missing asylum seekers queuing for deportation to Rwanda ‘will be found’

Rishi Sunak is facing accusations that his flagship policy in Rwanda has become a ‘farce’ after ministers vowed to find thousands of missing asylum seekers earmarked for deportation.

Police raids could be one measure to locate them, Health Minister Victoria Atkins suggested.

She said: “We want the message to come through loud and clear: if someone doesn’t come forward as they should, they shouldn’t think they can get away with it. They will be found.”

Of the 5,700 people identified for removal, only 2,145 “continue to report to the Ministry of the Interior and can be located for detention,” according to an official document published by the ministry.

The revelation is the latest in a series of setbacks in the plan to give asylum seekers a one-way ticket to the African country, which has still not seen a flight depart two years after the announcement.

No. 10 said it was “not accurate” to say that the Home Office was unable to locate around half of those told they could be deported, and that many were “in Home Office accommodation Business lived”.

But a former border chief said the group had “committed an act of disappearance”.

Kevin Saunders, chief immigration officer at Border Force, said he was not “the least bit” surprised that the Home Office had lost contact with them.

“I wouldn’t say the Home Office is telling porkies here, but let’s say they can’t find them temporarily,” he said, predicting they would “probably” turn up in Ireland. “They know they are in the box that needs to be removed, they don’t want to be removed and so they will disappear,” he added.

Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said the situation was a “farce” that exposed the “chaos at the heart of their Rwanda policy”.

He added: “The Prime Minister promised to arrest and remove anyone crossing the Channel. Now he can’t even locate the items intended for disposal. How can the conservative Home Office continue to lose so many people?”

The document also acknowledged that there could be further setbacks to Mr Sunak’s plans, caused by last-minute protests from MPs.

Under a long-standing parliamentary convention, removals can be suspended until a matter has been considered and a response sent to the MP concerned.

The assessment found that, given the ‘new nature’ of the scheme, ‘we should expect that future (Migration and Economic Development Partnership) cases will attract significant attention from MPs, and that aid workers may be overwhelmed with cases, causing a delay or deletion is cancelled. awaiting a response.”

The row comes as ministers try to lead the way on migration – as the number of foreign healthcare workers applying for visas, for them and their family members, has fallen by a quarter in six months.

In a boost for the Prime Minister, the figures cover the period before new restrictions aimed at reducing the number of people coming to Britain legally.

Health and care visa applications were submitted for 153,500 people between October and March, down 25% from 205,800 people in the six months to September.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “As the Prime Minister has made clear, we will have flights to Rwanda up and running in the next ten to twelve weeks.

“In preparation for the flights to start, we have identified the first cohort to be transferred to Rwanda and have hundreds of dedicated case workers ready to process any appeals.”

According to the Time In the paper, sources in the department have also suggested that there is a significant risk that identified migrants could abscond once the scheme is implemented.

Until now, free housing and a £49 weekly allowance have acted as an incentive to prevent this.

But officials fear the threat of being sent to Rwanda would outweigh that – and many would rather forfeit their benefits than risk deportation.

When asked how many of the 5,700 migrants identified for removal will be deported by the end of this calendar year, Ms Atkins said Sky News the Home Office was ‘used to’ asylum seekers who had stopped reporting: ‘I know there are reports today that part of the cohort has stopped reporting, but… the Home Office is operationally used to this, law enforcement are deployed in this regard.”

She added: “We want the message to come through loud and clear: if someone doesn’t report as they should, they shouldn’t think they can get away with it. They will be found. Law enforcement has several measures to find people, they will be found and they will be removed.”

Ministers are preparing for the start of the first flights in July, while the government will detain asylum seekers this week in preparation.

The British government’s Rwanda legislation paves the way for asylum seekers to be sent on a one-way ticket to the African country.

Ministers emphasize that it acts as a deterrent to small boat crossings from France.

Home Office figures show that more than 7,000 migrants have arrived in Britain after making the journey so far this year – a new record for the first four months of a calendar year.

About 500 crossed on Friday and Saturday alone, bringing the preliminary total for 2024 so far to 7,167.

This surpasses the previous record of 6,691 for January to April 2022 and already exceeds 5,946 for the first four months of last year.

It means arrivals are 24 percent higher than this time last year and 7 percent higher than at this point in 2022.

No crossings were recorded on Sunday, but groups of migrants were photographed being landed in Dover, Kent, on Monday amid sunny, windy and clear sea conditions.