Parliamentary committee left with little confidence in the Home Office’s ability to implement Rwanda policy
An important new report published yesterday by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee expresses concern over the Government's lack of a credible plan for implementing its migration partnership with Rwanda.
Image credit: WikipediaYou can read the report online here or download the 33-page report here.
The report presents the findings of the Committee following its inquiry into asylum accommodation and the UK's partnership with Rwanda for relocating asylum seekers.
With opinion polls suggesting Labour will likely form the next government after July's election, flights to Rwanda may not now go ahead. The Public Accounts Committee questions whether it was ever a viable plan for relocating large numbers of people.
The report states: "[T]he Home Office was unwilling to say how many people it is planning to relocate to Rwanda, and how it would do this. The Home Office asserts that it has robust operational plans, which are dependent on the flow of relocations. However, we are concerned by the Home Office's inability to explain the practical details including, for example, where those people who may be subject to relocations currently are and the arrangements for escorting them to Rwanda. Further, it could not provide clarity on escort or flight costs, including whether training costs were included in its contract with Mitie. We are left with little confidence in the Home Office's ability to implement the Rwanda partnership, and its understanding of the costs, particularly given its track record in delivering other major programmes."
Concerns are raised over the value for money of the partnership. By the end of March 2024, £240 million had been paid the Government of Rwanda by the UK without anyone being relocated.
The Public Accounts Committee finds that the Home Office does not yet know how it will evaluate the impact and value for money of the partnership. In addition, the Home Office has not yet worked out how it will measure success or what data it will need to understand if the partnership is delivering the desired deterrent effect to prevent small boat crossings. While the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 is now law, a record number of people have crossed the Channel this year.
As part of the Government's approach to asylum under the Illegal Migration Act 2023, the asylum claims for more than 50,000 people who have arrived in the UK via small boats or other irregular means are not being processed. The Committee says the Home Office was unable to explain what will happen to these people currently left in limbo.
The report notes: "There are currently more than 50,000 people who are deemed to be in the UK illegally, and that the Home Secretary will have a duty to remove. […] We are not convinced the Home Office has put in place sufficient measures to safeguard those pending relocation while they wait to hear what will happen to them. … Currently, the only viable option for many of them is to remove them to Rwanda, as other potential third-country partnerships would need significant lead times to be up and running. Meanwhile, these people remain in limbo – some people have now been waiting for over a year to be told what will happen to them."
There are significant concerns over the safety and wellbeing of the people in limbo: "Many of them are living in temporary Home Office accommodation, where there have been numerous reports of self-harm and suicide. While the Home Office told us it incorporated safety measures into its contracts with providers, it could not provide information about any penalties for falling below standards, despite reports of significant safety failures on sites."
While the Public Accounts Committee welcomed progress in reducing the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, it found that the Home Office's assessment of the requirements to set up alternative large-scale, asylum accommodation "fell woefully short of reality and risked wasting taxpayers' money".
"The Home Office has established four large accommodation sites – the Bibby Stockholm vessel in Dorset, former RAF bases in Wethersfield, Essex and Scampton, Lincolnshire, and former student accommodation in Huddersfield. […] We were concerned by the Home Office's assessment of the set-up costs to convert the two former RAF bases to accommodation. At the outset, the Home Office estimated that such costs would be £5 million for each site, but the costs increased to £49 million at Wethersfield and £27 million so far at Scampton," the report says.
It adds that the Home Office's latest assessment of value for money from January 2024 suggests that, in total, large accommodation sites will cost £46 million more than the hotels they are intended to replace.