British Government Begins Roundup of Migrants for Relocation to Africa, But Thousands Are Missing

Immigration enforcement officers take part in an immigration raid in Warrenpoint in County
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Oliver JJ Lane

The first “illegal migrants” to be deported under the UK government’s Rwanda Scheme have been detained by officials this week in advance of their flights, but thousands have already slipped through the net or gone missing.

The Home Office announced Wednesday the first “illegal migrants” were taken into custody “following a series of nationwide operations this week” by “operational teams”. The government said more such detentions prior to deportation are due to take place “in the coming weeks”.

The action comes after the UK Conservative Party-led government finally passed its Rwanda plan-enabling legislation last week. The move to disincentivise illegal and irregular migrant arrivals by people smuggler boats across the English Channel has been talked about for years but has been repeatedly held up by legal delays. The latest legislation steps around these roadblocks by essentially declaring Rwanda a safe country by government fiat, and “disapplies” some human rights legislation.

The government says the first actual deportation flights will take place in two to three months time.

Speaking in response to the first pre-relocation detentions, Home Secretary James Cleverly called the Rwanda plan to pay that government to host migrants on Britain’s behalf “pioneering”, and said: “Our dedicated enforcement teams are working at pace to swiftly detain those who have no right to be here so we can get flights off the ground.”

“This is a complex piece of work, but we remain absolutely committed to operationalising the policy, to stop the boats and break the business model of people smuggling gangs.”

 

The government presently has 2,200 detention spaces and, speaking last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised a “relentless, continual process of successfully and permanently removing people to Rwanda with a regular rhythm of multiple flights every month over the summer and beyond until the boats are stopped.”

Yet to deport those unwanted migrant arrivals, they must first be found. As separately admitted by the government this week, while 5,700 migrants have been identified as being eligible to be on the first wave of Rwanda relocation flights, the majority have already vanished into the United Kingdom. Of that 5,700, only 2,100 “continue to report to the Home Office and can be located for detention”.

KIGALI, RWANDA – APRIL 25: A view of Hope Hostel, where the irregular immigrants from United Kingdom to be deported to, is seen after King Charles III approved the bill regarding the deportation, in Kigali, Rwanda on April 25, 2024. After months of wrangling between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the bill to deport irregular migrants to Rwanda passed through Parliament. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the first planes with irregular migrants would leave for Rwanda within 10 to 12 weeks. (Photo by Cyrile Ndegeya/Anadolu via Getty Images)

KIGALI, RWANDA – APRIL 25: A view of Hope Hostel (Photo by Cyrile Ndegeya/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In some cases these migrants may have absconded, vanishing into the UK’s thriving black market which critics say is one of the factors that makes Britain so attractive to illegal migrants in the first place. In other instances, the ‘missing’ migrants may simply have been mislaid by inattentive government bureaucracy.

There is one glimmer of hope for the government, however, given the news overnight revealing there has been one migrant deported to Rwanda, who chose to be relocated to the country voluntarily. British newspaper The Sun notes the individual was the first taker of a new programme offering failed migrants £3,000 ($3,750) cash in return for going quietly.

The man, who is of African origin — but was not otherwise identified — apparently went to Rwanda on a commercial flight on Monday after having his application to gain asylum in the UK rejected in 2023.

The Rwanda plan is seen as an essential boost by the Conservative Party, which is barrelling towards a general election having broadly failed to deliver on their promises to the British people — and most obviously of all on border control — and who stand to be all but wiped out at the ballot box. As previously reported, the number of migrants actually deported by the UK every year is a tiny fraction of arrivals, and the failure to remove that balance is due to cost the taxpayer billions of pounds in housing and other costs every year.

That figure can’t, of course, account for other costs to society of failing to control a nation’s borders adequately. As noted in 2022, 91 per cent of failed asylum seekers who arrived in 2020 were not reported. In that year, the government only managed to remove 215 illegal boat migrants from the country, compared to the 45,728 who arrived by that route.

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