Rwanda scheme to cost £1.8m for each deportee

Rishi Sunak's flagship plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost taxpayers £1.8m for each of the first 300 people deported, Whitehall's spending watchdog has disclosed.

- Rajeev Syal

The overall cost of the scheme stands at more than £500m, according to the figures released to the National Audit Office. Even if the UK sends nobody to Rwanda, Sunak has signed up to pay £370m from the public purse over the five-year deal.

The disclosures follow nearly three years of refusals by prime ministers, home secretaries and senior Home Office staff to explain the full costs of the deal, citing "commercial confidentiality".

So far, no asylum seeker has been sent to Rwanda because of challenges under European and UK laws.

Diana Johnson, the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, expressed her shock at the final figures and expressed serious concerns at the lack of transparency.

The Labour MP said: "These are staggering figures. Huge initial outlay and ongoing costs raise serious questions about how this can be cost-effective, even compared to high hotel accommodation costs. What we are left with is a very expensive programme the government hopes may offer a deterrent to those seeking to cross the Channel in small boats. Yet there is little evidence for this either.

"Unless the government deals with the realities of the situation and focuses its energy and the public's money on fixing the real issues in the asylum and immigration system, it will achieve nothing."