Rwanda: Total dysfunction at the Home Office

Just when you think Conservatives have hit rock bottom, they stoop to a new low. No doubt this latest press announcement (during Parliamentary Recess notice) is designed to detract from the #Partygate scandal and Johnson's failure to resign as well as creating deliberate electorate division in the run up to local elections being held on 5th May in some parts of England.

The abhorent suggestion of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda is part of the Government's Nationalities and Borders Bill.

MPs are due to consider the Lords amendments on Tuesday 20th April 2022. Nationality and Borders Bill - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament

The together with refugees coalition estimates that implementing the bill will cost the tax payer around £2.7 billion per year.

The Times noted that Together With Refugees' estimate would be almost double the £1.4 billion cost of the asylum system in 2019-20.

In its report, Together With Refugees breaks down their calculated costs of the Bill as follows:

• £117.4 million a year on removing people seeking refugee protection from the UK to another country.
• £717.6 million a year on setting up and running new accommodation centres to house people seeking refugee protection.
• £1.44 billion a year on setting up and running a completely new system to send people seeking refugee protection to another country for detention and processing.
• £432 million a year on imprisoning people seeking refugee protection who arrive via irregular routes.
• £1.5 million a year on extra bureaucratic processing for people allocated Temporary Protection Status.

Together With Refugees coalition estimates implementing the Nationality and Borders Bill could cost £2.7 billion a year | Electronic Immigration Network (ein.org.uk)

Responding to Boris Johnson's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, after Refugee Minister Lord Harrington ruled out such a move just last week, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said:

"The Prime Minister and Home Secretary announcing a refugees policy that the Refugees Minister doesn't even know about shows the total dysfunction at the heart of the Home Office.

"If the Home Office can't even manage a press release properly, how on earth will they manage this new offshoring system?"

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