The first thorough government analysis of a high-stakes commitment to address record numbers of people arriving in small boats indicates that Britain’s proposal to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost 169,000 pounds ($215,035) per person.
As part of a contract with Rwanda that was reached last year, the Conservative administration of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to transfer thousands of migrants there from a distance of more than 4,000 miles (6,400 km).
The administration views the strategy as essential to preventing asylum seekers from France from landing in small boats. In response to pressure from some of his own Conservative parliamentarians and the general public to address the matter, Sunak has named it one of his top five priorities. This is because his party is trailing the main opposition Labour Party in surveys, and a national election is scheduled for next year.
The cost of deporting each person to Rwanda, according to the government’s economic impact assessment, would include an average payment to Rwanda of 105,000 pounds for hosting each asylum seeker, 22,000 pounds for the flight and escorting, and 18,000 pounds for processing and legal costs.
The consequences of discouraging others from trying to enter Britain and the mounting cost of hosting asylum seekers must be taken into account, according to Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Suella Braverman.
According to Braverman, if nothing is done, the annual expense of hosting asylum seekers will increase from its current level of roughly 3.6 billion pounds to 11 billion pounds.
Doing nothing is not an option, according to the economic effect analysis, she said.
Despite claiming that the potential savings were “highly uncertain,” the government projected that in order for the scheme to be successful, it would need to successfully discourage nearly two out of every five persons who arrive on tiny boats.
The economic evaluation, according to Labor, was a “complete joke” and failed to provide an accurate estimate of the plan’s total cost.
The Scottish National Party charged that the government was deporting desperate people for an “astronomical” sum of money while doing nothing to assist British citizens struggling to pay rising rent and food prices.
The Court of Appeal will issue its ruling on the legality of the Rwandan flights on Thursday.
A last-minute decision by the European Court of Human Rights, which imposed an injunction blocking any deportations until the resolution of legal proceedings in Britain, prevented the first scheduled flight from taking place last June.
The High Court in London decided the program was legal in December, but some human rights organizations and asylum seekers from countries like Syria, Sudan, Iraq, Iran, and Vietnam are challenging that ruling.
A record 45,000 persons crossed the English Channel in small boats last year, mostly from France. More than 11,000 people have come this year so far.
