- Written by Becky Morton & Dominic Casciani, National and Legal Correspondents
- BBC
The government has announced that detention of migrants targeted for deportation to Rwanda has begun.
A bill was passed last week aimed at reviving a plan to send some asylum seekers to the East African country.
The policy aims to prevent people from crossing the Channel in small boats.
The Interior Ministry did not say how many people had been detained, but said further operations would be carried out in the coming weeks.
The arrests followed a series of nationwide operations this week, the statement said.
The announcement came a day before people in the UK went to the polls in local elections.
The government had previously said it was aiming to take off by spring, but now says it should take off within nine to 11 weeks.
However, the plan could still be blocked by legal challenges.
Anyone who the Home Office is considering for assignment to an African country must be given at least seven days' written notice to give them an opportunity to respond.
It is unclear whether those detained have yet received that notice, but even if they had, it does not mean escape is imminent, as individuals have the right to file legal challenges.
Labor has said it will scrap the Rwanda plan if it wins the next election.
But Labour's deputy national election co-ordinator Ellie Reeves did not answer repeated questions about whether the party would release detainees as part of its policy.
He told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme: “We want to send people back to their home countries if their application is not successful and that's why we have entered into repatriation agreements and we are looking at 1,000 cases. “We're going to hire workers,” he said.
According to a Home Office document, 5,700 asylum seekers have been identified in the first batch to be sent to Rwanda, but only 2,143 continue to be reported to the Home Office and can be located for detention. .
No. 10 said it was “not accurate” that the Home Office had not been able to locate the others, but government officials said some people may have fled before being detained. I admitted something.
Following the first detention, Home Secretary James Cleverley said: “Our dedicated enforcement team is working rapidly to quickly detain people who have no right to be here so we can get our planes back in operation. ” he said.
Home Office Executive Director Eddie Montgomery said teams were trained to ensure the detentions were carried out safely.
He added: “It is vital that details of the operation are kept to a minimum to protect our colleagues involved and those detained, and to ensure that this large-scale operation can be carried out as quickly as possible.” he added.
The Interior Ministry said it had expanded its capacity to more than 2,200 soldiers and provided 500 highly trained bodyguards.
Commercial charters have also been booked and the airport is on standby, the ministry said.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “The government's move to detain people will instill fear and fear in men, women and children who have fled war and persecution to reach safety in the UK. It is causing distress and great anxiety.”
He said the government should focus on processing asylum cases “efficiently and fairly” rather than “high-profile schemes that waste time and resources”.
268 people crossed the English Channel to reach the UK on five boats on Tuesday, new figures have revealed.
A total of 7,567 people traveled between January and April, according to provisional statistics from the Interior Ministry.
This figure is 27% higher than the number of arrivals recorded during the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the first asylum seeker was unsuccessful and went to Rwanda under another voluntary removal program.
The scheme, announced in March, will offer migrants whose applications have been rejected up to £3,000 to move to the East African country.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, called news of the voluntary returns a “pre-election gimmick”, adding that taxpayers were “paying £3,000 for volunteers to get on the plane”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “They had to pay someone £3,000. There is a suspicion that this is about an election. It's not about seriously stopping ships.” Stated.
