Home Office written question – answered at on 4 July 2022.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the full cost of chartering the flight to transport asylum claimants from the UK to Rwanda under the terms of the UK–Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership, which had been due to depart on Tuesday 14 June; what was the expected cost per asylum-seeker on the flight; and whether they are liable to pay the full cost, or any cost, of chartering the flight, even in the event that it did not leave the UK for any reason.
The costs of our broken asylum system are at a 20 year record high, currently costing the UK taxpayer over £1.5bn a year, with £4.7 million a day being spent on hotels alone. This cannot continue – and the partnership with Rwanda is a key part of our plans to reform the system and put an end to unsustainable costs which impact the taxpayer.
The Government’s efforts to facilitate entirely legitimate and legal returns of people who have entered the UK illegally are too often frustrated by late challenges submitted hours before the flight. These claims are very often baseless and entirely without merit but are given full legal consideration which can lead to removal being rescheduled.
Costs for individual flights and legal services will vary based on a number of different factors and are regularly reviewed to ensure that best value for money is balanced against the need to remove those individuals with no right to remain in the UK.
We do not routinely disclose commercial or operational information relating to individual charter flights.
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