Rishi Sunak’s flagship Rwanda immigration policy is about to be halted again, with physical and legal resistance from asylum seekers delaying flights to Kigali from getting off the ground, according to Home Office insiders.
The Safety of Rwanda Bill, which seeks to limit legal challenges by migrants selected for deportation, is expected to make it through Parliament next week.
Conservatives think the breakthrough could provide them with an electoral boost if it means that flights sending migrants to the East African country finally take off.
But officials involved in implementing the plan have told i of an array of practical stumbling blocks that they believe will make the flights impossible in the near future.
Immigration staff fear deliberate assaults from distressed asylum seekers and believe they may resist being taken into detention ahead of removal, or cause disturbances capable of causing flights to be grounded.
The Home Office is said to have “cherry-picked” people for an initial flight whom it believes to have the lowest chance of successfully fighting removal, but legal groups told i they are preparing an avalanche of legal challenges.
Preparatory work at the airfield selected for the scheme has not finished and the Government has not confirmed whether it has secured a carrier for flights, after several airlines ruled themselves out over reputational concerns.
One civil servant called the current plans an “election vanity scam”, saying the original Home Office target of sending 1,000 people a week to Rwanda had been internally downgraded.
“All they want to do is to put somebody on a flight and call the election right after claiming victory,” they said.
The official said current efforts were geared towards a single flight as “proof of concept”, rather than the regular and systematic removals of small boat migrants originally promised by the government.
Another Home Office insider told i: “Getting any flight off the ground is seen as critical by the politicos but we do not anticipate that being possible straight off – not least due to expectations of a legal challenge.”
But ministers remain bullish. A source close to Home Secretary James Cleverly, said: “The people who promote this warped version of reality are very invested in trying to delay, disrupt or damage the Rwanda partnership from purely political motives, because they are terrified it will work and are increasingly desperate to prevent the many other countries interested in solutions to global migration seeing it work.”
The ISU union, which represents frontline Border Force and immigration workers, said its members were concerned about potential physical resistance from people being taken into detention for Rwanda flights, and on the plane itself.
ISU professional officer Lucy Moreton said the first attempted flight in June 2022, which was grounded by an ECHR injunction, saw migrants attempt to self-harm and fall into mental health crises, but deliberate assaults were now feared.
“There are concerns about the safety of officers in any attempt to pick up people and take them into custody,” she added.
“Usually migrants, even those at the end of the process, are relatively peaceful but they have every incentive for that to no longer be the case.”
The union believes that such resistance is likely to prevent flights taking off. Ms Moreton says that even if they do get in the air, disruption on the flight itself could cause pilots to ground or stop planes before they get to Rwanda.
She said that internally, Home Office staff had been told that Rwanda would not accept asylum seekers who have a criminal record, creating a “perverse incentive” for those selected to commit offences.
“Given the undertaking that we will not send anyone with a criminal record to Rwanda, and given the high stakes involved, there is serious concern that migrants may take to assaulting staff as a way to avoid removal,” she said.
A senior official from the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), which represents Home Office staff, said industrial action would be “on the table” if the Government ignores future injunctions by the European Court of Human Rights and instructs civil servants to breach them – a move it believes would violate the Civil Service Code.
Head of bargaining Paul O’Connor added: “The Home Office have got lists of people they’ve got earmarked for deportation, and those are the ones who are least likely to successfully obtain an injunction to stop the flight.
“They have filtered down and cherry-picked the cases they’ve got the best chance of defending and everyone else has been left in limbo.”
Asylum seekers who are gay or disabled are believed to be those excluded from the first flight, although Mr O’Connor said there was “no guarantee” the tactic would work.
“They want to get one flight off the ground for the optics of it, but the idea that thousands of people can be put on flights is one for the birds,” he added.
“You can imagine the amount of distress that people are going to be in being loaded onto that plane. That in itself presents a security risk for any flight.”
Ms Moreton said that detention places had not been cleared for a Rwanda flight as they had been at previous points where the government hoped to operationalise the plan, and that there was an “unspoken acceptance” within the Home Office that new legal challenges would cause further delay.
“The working assumption is that they are going to set a flight and select people to put on it, but the chances of it taking off are slim,” she added.
“The safety of an aircraft is the responsibility of the pilot, so it’s their prerogative to refuse to take off if they don’t think it’s safe.”
Ms Moreton said at least two escorts will be needed per asylum seeker flown to Rwanda, taking up more space on any flights, and that the number will go up if they are distressed or resistant.
Published contracts show the Government is spending £7.4m on “use of force training”, having hired an aircraft hangar and fuselages to simulate scenarios including asylum seekers physically resisting being put on a plane and protesters lying on the ground to prevent take-off.
Records made by escort staff following the failed June 2022 flight to Kigali showed that some asylum seekers were restrained and attached to plane seats after self-harming and begging not to be deported from the UK.
Steve Smith, chief executive of refugee charity Care4Calais, said the “alarming level of distress and trauma” would be repeated if a flight proceeds.
“We know this is a desperate Government who are going after those with the least likelihood of being able to secure legal support to challenge their Rwanda notice, but our team has spent the last two years vigilantly helping people who receive Rwanda letters get signed up with solicitors and we are continuing to do so,” he added.
“If parliament passes the Rwanda Bill next week we will leave no stone unturned to identify those at risk and signpost them to get legal support.”
Insiders have told i that contracts show an airfield has been selected for the flights. Remedial work includes anti-drone protections, suggesting the site is unlikely to be a commercial airport or a military base, as they already have such facilities in place.
A Government spokesperson said: “We make no apology for pursuing bold solutions to stop illegal migration, dismantle the people smuggling gangs and save lives.
“We have robust operational plans in place to get flights off the ground to Rwanda in spring.”
