British taxpayers have paid for the Rwanda accommodation, part of a scheme widely criticised since it was introduced – and new plans involving Donald Trump have also been slammed
Migrants deported by Donald Trump may be housed in Rwandan hotels paid for by British taxpayers, reports claim.
The Rwandan government will discuss housing people removed from America in facilities that were built by the UK, it is understood today. When asked if the British facilities would be used for the American scheme, a Rwandan government official reportedly said: “Those are details that will be discussed at an appropriate time.”
Under the new agreement, Rwanda would join the list of “third countries” where Mr Trump’s administration sends deportees, similar to El Salvador. The US President has been criticised for sending migrants to “hell on Earth” prisons in El Salvador, including Kilmar Ábrego García, who last week Mr Trump said he can “bring back” man but “won’t”. Rwanda has already received some migrants from the US, including at least one Iraqi national, according to a diplomatic cable TV station.
But Britain’s use of the accommodation has been blasted and was scrapped by Keir Starmer days after Labour won the general election in July. The Tories had introduced it, however just four migrants were sent to the African state, all voluntarily.
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Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s foreign affairs minister, said the country was in the “early stage” of talks with Mr Trump’s administration. The US has already struck a similar deal with El Salvador. Mr Nduhungirehe told The Telegraph: “This aligns with our broader policy of offering second chances to migrants facing challenges in various parts of the world.”
When Mr Starmer axed the deportation plan here, the Tories insisted the programme hadn’t started. However, it received legal clearance from the High Court of Justice and was scheduled for June 14, 2022 – two years before Labour came to power. Yet, it hit snags, such as a last-minute interim measure by the European Court of Human Rights. Labour has instead diverted the money to fund a new Border Security Command, designed to use counter-terror style powers to end people-smuggling gangs.
But it is thought some £700million of taxpayers’ money went into the Tories’ plan, including £290million in payments to Rwanda, as well as the costs of chartering flights that never left the ground. It also cost the taxpayer to detain hundreds of people and then release them, and to pay for more than 1,000 civil servants to work on the scheme.
Britain spent at least £318million to pay for asylum facilities and boost economic development in Rwanda, it is reported today. More than 40 per cent of Brits surveyed in a YouGov poll in April 2022, weeks before the scheme was to start, said they disagreed with the Conservative Party’s programme.