Rwanda plan ‘may push asylum seekers into hiding to avoid being deported’

Legal advisor says Rwanda plan is going to ‘backfire’ as terrified asylum seekers will go ‘underground’

Asylum seekers may be pushed into hiding over fears of being deported to Rwanda as part of the Home Office’s new migration deal, a legal advisor has claimed.

The agreement between the UK and Rwanda, announced last week, will see asylum seekers who arrive in the UK in unauthorised Channel crossings flown 4,000 miles away to have their claims processed by Rwandan authorities.

MPs and campaigners have criticised the plans and Geeth Kulasegaram, a legal advisor, has now said it is scaring people into silence about their asylum status.

He told Sky News that after the announcement of the policy, he was inundated with calls from various types of asylum seekers.

He said: “We always advise people who are illegal to get in touch with the Home Office as soon as possible and regulate their status one way or the other. There are people who are seriously thinking about going into hiding and people who already claimed asylum and are thinking of withdrawing their application and going underground.

“So this is actually going to backfire and encourage more people to go into hiding because they don’t want to go to Rwanda.”

MPs and campaigners have criticised the plans to forcibly send to Rwanda thousands of asylum seekers who arrive in the UK in unauthorised Channel crossings (PA)

It comes days after shadow home office minister Stephen Kinnock told the Commons that Labour does not support the government’s Rwanda plan, describing the Nationality and Borders Bill as “profoundly inadequate and mean-spirited”.

He told MPs: “The clauses on offshoring, inadmissibility, differential treatment, an offence of arrival are symptomatic of a shambolic government that has completely lost control of our asylum system to the extent that it’s now seeking to dump its problems on a developing country that’s 4,000 miles away and which has a questionable record on human rights.”

Former prime minister and home secretary Theresa May also told her successor Priti Patel in the Commons that she could not support the policy and demanded evidence that “this will not simply lead to an increase in the trafficking of women and children”.

Criticism for the plan has even been flagged by Home Office staff in an internal online noticeboard where employees expressed “deep shame” at the deal.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “This world-leading Migration Partnership will overhaul our broken asylum system, which is currently costing the UK taxpayer £1.5bn a year - the highest amount in two decades.

“It means those arriving dangerously, illegally or unnecessarily can be relocated to have their asylum claims considered and, if recognised as refugees, build their lives there.

“There is nothing in the UN Refugee Convention which prevents removal to a safe country. Under this agreement, Rwanda will process claims in accordance with national and international human rights laws.”

The Independent has approached the Home Office for further comment.