Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
Thousands of asylum seekers identified by the Interior Ministry as eligible for deportation to Rwanda have been unable to contact the ministry, according to government documents.
“Of the 5,700 people Rwanda has agreed in principle to accept, 2,143 continue to present themselves to the Ministry of Interior and may be searched for detention.” According to the impact assessment released by the ministry:.
by timesThe Home Office says the remaining asylum seekers are not necessarily absconding but are not subject to reporting restrictions, meaning their whereabouts cannot be determined.
The document, updated on the Home Office website on Monday, also acknowledged that deportations could be delayed further after MPs announced a last-minute suspension of deportations.
There is a long-standing parliamentary practice that allows removals to be paused until a lawsuit is considered and lawmakers receive a response.
Given the “novelty” of the plan, the assessment said, “it is expected that future (Immigration and Economic Development Partnership) litigation will receive significant attention from legislators, leaving responders overwhelmed with litigation and resulting in delays and There is a possibility that the removal will be halted.” I’m waiting for your reply. ”
The document appears to be the latest in a series of setbacks to the government’s stalled plans to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Last week, it was revealed that the FDA trade union, which represents senior public servants, is considering launching a judicial review of the law, and the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has been told that its staff are in breach of European rules. Human Rights Court judgment does not exclude the possibility of voting to strike in the case.
A Ministry of Interior official also said: I There was “a lot of dissatisfaction” within the department about the plan, with staff believing it would be impossible to detain and deport large numbers of people crossing the Channel.
Separately, Rishi Sunak rejected the idea of allowing asylum seekers to return from Ireland over concerns the policy would lead to an influx of migrants across the border into Ireland.
The Prime Minister said he was “not interested” in a return deal if the European Union did not allow Britain to return asylum seekers who crossed the Channel from France.
The British government’s Rwanda law, which paves the way for asylum seekers to make one-way trips to the East African country, has been hailed by ministers seeking to stop small boat crossings from France as a deterrent.
However, the Irish government claims that changes in migration patterns in recent months mean that the number of asylum seekers from Northern Ireland is now “in excess of 80%” of Ireland’s total.
The issue was discussed by the British and Irish governments at high-level talks in London on Monday.
The Irish government has proposed new legislation to make it easier to send migrants to the UK, following a ruling by the Irish High Court that the Rwanda plan meant the UK was no longer a “safe third country” for returning asylum seekers. Overturned.
Channel crossings continued on Monday, with Home Office figures showing more than 7,000 migrants have completed the journey and arrived in the UK so far this year, a new record for the first four months of the calendar year.
Around 500 people crossed the Channel to the UK on Friday and Saturday alone, bringing the provisional total for 2024 to 7,167.
This beats the previous record of 6,691 cases from January to April 2022, and has already surpassed the first four months of last year with 5,946 cases.
This means arrivals are 24% higher than this time last year and 7% higher than this time in 2022.
Additional reporting by the Press Association