- By Becky Morton & Dominic Casciani, home and legal correspondent
- BBC
Migrants identified for deportation to Rwanda have started to be detained, the government has said.
Legislation aimed at reviving the plan to send some asylum seekers to the east African country was passed into law last week.
The policy seeks to deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.
The Home Office did not say how many people had been detained but it said more operations were due to be carried out in the coming weeks.
It said the detentions followed a series of nationwide operations this week.
The announcement came the day before people in England go to the polls in local elections.
The government had previously said it was aiming for flights to take off by the spring but now says this should happen in nine to 11 weeks.
However, the plan could still be held up by legal challenges.
Anyone who the Home Office is considering to send to the African country must be given at least seven days’ written notice of that intention, so that they have an opportunity to respond.
It is not clear if the people taken into detention have received that notice yet – but even if they have, it does not mean a flight would be imminent because individuals have the right to launch a legal challenge.
Labour has said it would scrap the Rwanda scheme if it wins the next election.
However, asked several times whether the party would release those detained as part of the policy, Labour’s deputy nation campaign coordinator Ellie Reeves would not say.
“We want to get people back to their own countries if their claims have failed which is why we would set up those return agreements and also recruit a thousand case workers,” she told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme.
Home Office documents show 5,700 asylum seekers have been identified in the initial cohort to be sent to Rwanda, but only “2,143 continue to report to the Home Office and can be located for detention”.
No 10 said it was “not accurate” to say the Home Office was unable to locate the others, but a government source admitted it was possible some could abscond before they were detained.
Responding to the initial detentions, Home Secretary James Cleverly 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.”
Home Office director of enforcement Eddy Montgomery said teams were trained to ensure detentions were carried out safely.
He added: “It is vital that operational detail is kept to a minimum, to protect colleagues involved and those being detained, as well as ensuring we can deliver this large-scale operation as quickly as possible.”
The Home Office said it had increased detention capacity to more than 2,200 spaces and had 500 highly-trained escorts ready.
The department said commercial charters had also been booked and an airport had been put on standby.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “The government’s move to detain people is causing fear, distress and great anxiety amongst men, women and children who have fled war and persecution to reach safety in the UK.”
He said the government should focus on processing asylum claims “efficiently and fairly”, rather than “headline-grabbing schemes that will waste time and resources”.
It comes as new figures showed 268 people arrived in the UK across the Channel in five boats on Tuesday.
A total of 7,567 people made the journey from January to April, provisional Home Office figures show.
The figure is 27% higher than the number of arrivals recorded in the same period last year.
Meanwhile, a first failed asylum seeker has gone to Rwanda under a separate voluntary removals programme.
Under the scheme, announced in March, migrants whose claims are rejected are offered up to £3,000 to move to the east African country.
Shadow home…
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