Eagle, minister for border security and asylum, commented on the figures: “The sheer eye-watering scale of the Conservatives’ Rwanda gimmick has been exposed. The taxpayer has footed a £700m bill thanks to their incompetence and Kemi Badenoch would do it all over again.”
She continued: “This government has already started the hard graft. We hired more caseworkers to tackle the asylum backlog and get people out of hotels. We’ve also removed thousands of those with no right to be in the UK.
“Labour is getting on with cleaning up the Conservatives’ mess. Our new Border Security Command is working with our European partners to smash the criminal gang networks driving small boat crossings.”
Home secretary Yvette Cooper added that “84,000 crossed the Channel from the day the deal was signed to the day it was scrapped”, meaning that the “so-called deterrent did not result in a single deportation or stop a single boat crossing the Channel”.
Lisa Smart, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesperson, added that the bill was a “disgraceful waste of taxpayer money”.
“The Conservatives should be utterly ashamed of themselves. £715m wasted on their failed Rwanda scheme with absolutely nothing to show for it,” Smart added.
“Not only did they recklessly throw millions down the drain, but the Conservatives left our asylum system in a state of disrepair.”
Rwanda scheme ‘designed to be cruel’
“It is appalling that the previous government spent such an eye-watering amount of money on a scheme that was designed to be cruel,” Alison Pickup, executive director at the charity Asylum Aid, told the Big Issue.
“Since 2022, when the Rwanda plan was announced, we have seen the devastating impact it has had on the mental health of people seeking protection in the UK. Our clients have experienced great fear and anxiety, and were constantly worried about being sent to a country with which they had no prior connection.”
Pickup continued: “Those who arrive in the UK to seek safety after taking a long and arduous journey deserve to have their protection claims considered here in a fair, timely and effective manner. This money should have been spent on the systems that could make that a reality.
“People who come here seeking safety must not to be shipped off to a third country and the government must ensure that the UK does not outsource its asylum responsibilities ever.”
Steve Smith, CEO of Care4Calais, added: “This is a hefty price tag for nothing more than the pain, suffering and anxiety inflicted on thousands of survivors of torture and modern slavery.
“The last Government’s Rwanda scheme was brutal, inhumane and always unworkable. It didn’t stop a single Channel crossing, but the dawn raids, violent detentions and prolonged court battle have left an emotional scar on all those impacted by it.”
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