Even if the deal collapses after the election, the next government would still be faced with paying huge sums to asylum seekers being held for deportation to Rwanda.
The asylum seekers are suing the Home Office, who claim they were illegally detained before being allowed to make the first flight to the East African country. Home Office sources suggested the office does not accept these claims.
More than 80 of those detained have been released on bail, but dozens remain in custody despite the fact that no flights to Rwanda are expected to depart anytime soon. The Conservatives have said that if they are re-elected on July 4, the first flights will not depart until July 24, and the Labour Party has said it will reverse the policy.
Rwanda’s plan is part of a government policy to “stop the boats” but more than 11,000 people have crossed the strait so far this year.
Immigration detainees should only be held if there is a reasonable chance they will be deported within a reasonable period of time, typically for weeks rather than months until their planned deportation date.
More than 100 asylum seekers were detained in late April and early May as part of a major government campaign to implement Rwanda policy ahead of local elections.
One of them is Adam (not his real name), an Eritrean asylum seeker who was released after a month in detention but said he still suffers from the effects of his imprisonment.
“Being incarcerated for something I didn’t do has had a huge impact on me,” he said. “I feel like an egg that has cracked and can never be put back together.”
He added: “The detention was horrible. I was given a very dirty blanket but instead I covered myself with my coat. I was told we were in a detention centre but from what I saw it was a prison. We were locked in solitary confinement night and day. I escaped forced conscription in my home country and struggled for eight years to get to the UK – I thought this was a country of human rights.”
“At first, after I got out of jail, I was too scared to leave the house,” he said. “I lost a lot of weight there. I’m trying to enjoy my freedom outside, but I’m still very scared.”
The second man, from Syria, remains in custody and is awaiting a bail hearing.
“Saturday marks six weeks since I was detained,” he said. “There are around 15 to 20 others still locked up in the centre who are being held to go to Rwanda. The situation here is very tough but the release of others who were supposed to go to Rwanda has given me some hope.”
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“The government rounded up vulnerable people in a persecuted war zone, knowing they were traumatized,” said Pierre Makhlouf of the charity Bail for Migrant Detainees, which has helped release more than a dozen detainees on bail. “By arresting people en masse just months before they are scheduled to be deported, the government has created a climate of fear.”
Laura Smith, from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Migrants, said all three asylum seekers she represented who were held in Rwanda had been released. She said the experience of detention had left all three men mentally debilitated.
Duncan Lewis LLP is representing 50 people being held for deportation to Rwanda, all of whom have been granted bail. Lewis Kett, a lawyer at the firm, said: “The government’s decision to detain so many men and women en masse, with no imminent deportation, should be seriously questioned. Among the groups we represent are victims of torture and trafficking, and people with serious mental illnesses. Detaining them and now offering them financial compensation is a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money.”
Adam said he is slowly getting used to having his freedom restored.
“I always think that this freedom is temporary. I hope I will never be locked up again. The British people are good but the government is not good. Now I just try to forget that I was locked up.”
