Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame, has offered to send back the £240m the UK has paid and the remaining £50m, which is yet to be paid if no asylum seekers are sent to Rwanda under the deal between the two countries. In an interview with the BBC, Kagame said that the money would only be used if those people will come, if they don’t come, Rwanda can return the money. However, the UK government is confident about the success of the deal, as it claims the plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda will discourage migrants from traveling across the Channel in small boats.
But, according to Labour, the scheme will eventually cost UK taxpayers £400m, and the policy will not work and therefore “a gimmick”. The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, welcomed Kagame’s offer to refund the money and pledged to put it towards “processing asylum cases” and “cracking down on the criminal gangs” that are involved in illegal immigration. Speaking in Davos, she said that it would be a much better use of the money and would have a much greater chance of success in controlling small boat crossings that the UK absolutely needs to do.
Meanwhile, during Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer accused the government of “losing contact” with more than 4,000 people it had lined up for removal to Rwanda. According to a Daily Telegraph story citing Home Office documents, only 700 of the original 5,000 people earmarked for deportation are in “regular contact” with officials. Keir Starmer believes that “spending £400m on a plan not to get anybody to Rwanda while losing 4,000 people is not a plan, it’s a farce”. Furthermore, he claims that only this government can waste hundreds of millions of pounds on a removals policy that doesn’t remove anyone. However, Rishi Sunak, the Deputy Prime Minister, defended the government’s record on migration saying, “It’s a bit rich to hear him in here pretending that he cares about how we actually stop the boats, when he’s been crystal clear and said that even if the plan is working to reduce the numbers, he would still scrap it”
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