People seeking asylum arrested and held ahead of being flown to Rwanda

People seeking asylum arrested and held ahead of being flown to Rwanda

well the local elections are tomorrow Kieran and in the leadup we’ve had almost daily headlines about Rwanda the latest that a man who had his Asylum application rejected by the British government has become the first person to agree to voluntarily go to the east African country with a resettlement payment of £3,000 now that particular scheme will of course cost taxpayers much more when you take into consideration the cost of flights accommodation payments to the Rwandan government the audit office has raised questions about the cost effectiveness of both Rwanda schemes because separate to that voluntary Arrangement the government today confirmed as we reported yesterday on our program that they’ve started arresting and detaining people ahead of enforced deportations to Rwanda now for Rishi sunak there’s a lot riding on this after tomorrow’s election results he could come under pressure from plotters within his own party he’s gambling on Rwanda he believes it’s an election winner although the polls suggest there is some support it is more nuanced than this and today the government came under some criticism for releasing a home office video set to music of those arrests and Deport and detentions say it say it in the week of the local elections amid noisy protests the detentions have [Applause] begun the government’s now confirmed what we reported on channel 4 news last night but people seeking Asylum are being arrested and held ahead of being flown to Rwanda in around 10 weeks time this is what it looks and feels like in lfra we film this man surrounded by officers escorted into a van in handcuffs with three others on the phone Muhammad told me how he felt scared now they told us they will us to Sil Seekers welcome here the government said its operational teams have been working at PACE to safely and swiftly detain individuals in contrast to these scenes of protest outside immigration reporting centers the home office released this video set to music it shows officers raiding people’s homes and arresting them no context is given so we don’t know who they are where they’ll be detained and how many will actually end up on flights to Kigali the first illegal migrants set to be removed to Rwanda have now been detained following a series of Nationwide operations this week this Minister comes here to be proud of this TDY pathetic self-de defeating piece of fascist nonsense it’s understood around 5,000 people seeking Asylum have been identified for removal although it isn’t clear how many Rwanda will be able to initially accommodate among those who’ve been told they may be deported is a man we’re calling armed I was uh working working as a intelligence analyst and supporting the our Air Forces back there in Afghanistan and the British Embassy he asked not to be identified because he claims he worked in intelligence alongside British RAF officers he says he was proud of his work with the coalition to rebuild his country it was a fulfilling task that we used to do because we had a goal of democracy and uh to stabilize the country and to have a prosperous country uh which unfortunately um didn’t happen at the end in the chaos of the Allied withdrawal after the Taliban takeover armed couldn’t get onto an evacuation flight so he fled Overland to a neighboring country he applied to come to the UK legally under the Arab scheme his solicitor confirmed he got no response for 18 months and so he came here via a small boat across the channel but his application was then rejected and he received a Rwanda letter which he legally challenging it feels like a betrayal because the government promised something and did something complete opposite and all I’m asking is for the government to fulfill their promise the government argues that there were legal roots for people under the Arab scheme so why didn’t you wait and take that route well I actually agree with the government because they said they are legal rules but they are not functioning if something exists but does not function what is the use of it when the Rwanda bill was going through its fraud Journey Through the Lords it was partly held up because of the issue of Afghan veterans in the end the government said it would make a concession for those with a credible link to Afghan Special Forces who’d have their claims reassessed by an independent body it was with some relief that the Prime Minister got the bill through his political future depends on the controversial plan and he insists the public is with him people are starving over here homelessness it’s ridiculous so I personally think it’s a good idea to send them to Rwanda there’s a lot of anger and shame that my country is doing this our country is doing this and there’s a lot of hurt and heartbreak not entirely convinced all of it’s the right way forward um do seem like a very cost effective option either the government May well be hoping that the images of these detentions will be a deterrent and stop the boats this as today new figures show more than 7 and a half thousand people made the dangerous journey in the first four months of this year a 27% increase on the same period last year well as we’ve been hearing the government just sent a failed Asylum Seeker to Rwanda and it paid him £3,000 to go but how much will it really cost we’ve been taking a closer look and the true cost to British taxpayers is much much larger now this isn’t the main Rwanda policy that’s dominated politics for two years that’s about forcing some Asylum Seekers to East Africa to have their claims processed there this is a voluntary scheme for people still in the UK whose applications have already failed the government is now offering these people up to £3,000 to move to Rwanda but the true cost is much much more as British taxpayers are also paying Rwanda for every individual they take that’s because people who go to Rwanda by choice can get the same relocation package in Rwanda as those sent by force housing food health care for up to 5 years costing the UK taxpayer up to 140,000 just about for every person who chooses to go we estimate using figures from the National Audit office that’s on top of the £370 million pounds the government will pay to set up the forced and voluntary Rwanda schemes well the home office told us the policy allows people to be relocated to what it describes as a safe third country where they will be supported it says removal flights to Randa will take off in the next 9 to 11 weeks to deter people crossing the channel chish thanks well in Dublin Police have moved in to clear a tent encampment set up by Asylum Seekers some 200 tents were removed from the city center and their occupants relocated to the south of the capital our Foreign Affairs correspondent poric O’Brien is in Dublin poric Chris we’re a few streets over from lster house here the houses of Parliament in in Dublin and over the last couple of years a large encampment of homeless Asylum Seekers started develop around the international protection office which is behind me here there were about 200 tents there and today the G thean contractors moved in to clear that site and the operation went smoothly we’ve been down at that camp quite a lot recently conditions there were squalled businesses were complaining about it but crucially the site was totemic isabor of the struggle that the Irish government have been having when it comes to managing immigration there are around 1,700 Asylum Seekers homeless in the Irish State at the moment people that the Irish government have struggled to accommodate two large groups of men were brought to two different sites on the outskirts of Dublin Asylum centers on the outskirts of Dublin today one of those sites has been the subject of anti-migrant demonstrations so we are keeping an eye on that this evening the backdrop to all of this though is this fraught political row we’ve seen between London and Dublin over the last few days the minister for justice here said that the vast majority of Asylum Seekers coming into the Republic had come via Britain uh the implication being that they were doing so deterred by the Rwanda effect there is a lot of political posturing though going on here from the Irish government’s point of view they can point at Rwanda and say see there are larger numbers coming in we are struggling to manage it and of course from rishy sunx point of view with an election local elections tomorrow he can appear robust on the sovereignty of British borders and of course can get let’s face it what is a rare win when it comes to his Rwanda policy he can say see yes there is a deterrent effect people are leaving the United Kingdom and coming to Ireland to claim Asylum parri

A man whose asylum bid was rejected by the UK has been moved to Rwanda with up to £3,000 in financial aid from the government. He wasn’t forcibly removed, but instead taking part in a voluntary returns scheme. (Subscribe: https://bit.ly/C4_News_Subscribe)

Under the government’s separate plan to forcibly remove people to Rwanda, detentions have already begun, even though the first removal flights are not expected for weeks.

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