Ministers accused of trying to ‘bribe’ voters as first migrants bound for Rwanda detained

Ministers have been accused of trying to “bribe” voters after they released pictures of the first asylum seekers being rounded up for deportation to Rwanda – and announced one other had agreed to voluntarily relocate for £3,000 – a day before the local elections.

Downing Street insisted the raids were an important step towards getting Rishi Sunak’s controversial policy airborne, and denied the operation was a cynical attempt to woo voters ahead of poll results that could decide the prime minister’s future.

His press secretary said: “For our part there really is not a day to lose when people are dying in the channel.”

Officers began detaining potential deportees on Monday at their homes or as they came to report at immigration centres – even though the first flights are not due to depart for at least another nine weeks. Around 800 officers are deployed on what has been dubbed Operation Vector, and home secretary James Cleverly said they were working “at pace”.

But a spokesman for shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the raids were a “desperate attempt by the Tories to look tough on immigration on the eve of polling day”.

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The Lib Dems also denounced it as “cynical nonsense from a Conservative party that is about to take a drubbing”.

Tony Blair’s former aide John McTernan said he thought it was a “clear breach of the civil service code”.

Labour MP Barry Gardiner said ministers were “clearly desperate to show some progress on this miserable scheme before the local elections. But to actually give away £3,000 of public money to get individuals to go voluntarily looks like nothing more than a bribe. The Rwanda legislation is about forcibly deporting people, not sending them off with a fat wallet. This is no more than an electoral stunt that will backfire as it encourages people to think that if they come to the UK, they will be set up in a new life with thousands of pounds.”

The Home Office said a series of operations took place across the country over the past few days, with more activity due in coming weeks. They declined to say how many men and women had been detained.

Those selected for detention in this first phase are already on some form of immigration bail, meaning they have to regularly report to the Home Office, and have been deemed by officials as being least likely to successfully challenge their removals.

They have all already received “notices of intent” that the government was considering their removal to Rwanda. They have also all been approved by the Rwandan government for deportation.

It is understood that asylum seeker detentions have started so early, some nine weeks before planes are planned to take off, because officials want to give time to deal with complex legal challenges.

A handful of asylum seekers have been detained at immigration removal centres at Heathrow airport, The Independent understands.

An Adults at Risk scheme allows people to challenge their detention if they have significant health problems, but it is unlikely that others will be allowed to leave immigration detention while they are waiting for a Rwanda flight. It is up to the home secretary to assess whether the length of time people are held for is a “reasonable period”.

Speaking about the operation on Wednesday, Mr Cleverly said: “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.”

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Home Office enforcement director Eddy Montgomery said specialist operational teams were “highly trained” and equipped to carry out “the necessary enforcement activity at pace and in the safest way possible”.

Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said the detentions were causing “fear, distress and great anxiety amongst men, women and children who have fled war and persecution to reach safety in the UK”.

Mr Solomon said: “Children have been sending messages to our staff terrified that their age-disputed status will put them at risk of removal to Rwanda. We have also seen a worsening in the mental health and wellbeing of people we work with in the asylum system.”

James Wilson, director at Detention Action, said: “We are providing support to people in detention and we know the damage caused by locking people in small cells, behind high fences, with no idea when they will be freed.”

The round-up came after the government paid a failed asylum seeker around £3,000 to voluntarily relocate to Rwanda.

Under a scheme running alongside the government’s controversial deportation agreement with the east African nation, ministers can pay failed asylum applicants up to £3,000 to get on a flight to Kigali.

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On Tuesday, an African man took the government up on its offer, just in time for Thursday’s local elections.

The unnamed man was handed around £3,000 to board a commercial flight to the Rwandan capital after his bid to stay in Britain was rejected at the end of last year, The Sun reported.

And it came as Labour was forced to deny it is rowing back on a promise not to deport a single person to Rwanda.

The party doubled down on its promise to scrap the Rwanda deportation scheme if it wins the election, amid mounting speculation it could send some asylum seekers to Kigali.

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The party has promised not a single person will be deported to the African nation if Sir Keir Starmer becomes prime minister, with the money from the scheme being diverted to border enforcement schemes and a returns agreement with the EU.

But citing “senior Labour figures”, left-leaning magazine the New Statesman said the party is considering retaining the Rwanda scheme until its own returns policy is agreed.

“We can’t just come in, tear it up, and have nothing to put in its place,” one adviser said.

But the party distanced itself from the claim and repeated its promise to scrap the scheme in government. Pressed last week on whether in the “interim” period after coming into power, a Labour government would send any asylum seekers to Rwanda, Yvette Cooper said: “No, that is not our plan.”

Labour has accused Mr Sunak of pursuing an “extortionate” gimmick. Ms Cooper said: “The Tories are so desperate to get any flight off to Rwanda before the local elections that they have now just paid someone to go.

“British taxpayers aren’t just forking out £3,000 for a volunteer to board a plane, they are also paying Rwanda to provide him with free board and lodgings for the next five years. This extortionate pre-election gimmick is likely to be costing on average £2m per person.”

After two years of legal challenges and parliamentary wrangling, a controversial bill to get flights to Rwanda off the ground finally obtained royal assent last week. The scheme, first announced by Boris Johnson in April 2022, aims to put those arriving in the UK on small boats on a one-way flight to Rwanda.

Mr Sunak hopes sending some asylum seekers to the African nation will act as a deterrent against others making the perilous journey across the English Channel.