The cost of the stalled Rwanda asylum scheme could balloon to half a billion pounds, plus hundreds of thousands more for each deportee, an investigation by the public spending watchdog found.
The Home Office has so far refused to say how much more money, on top of the £290m already confirmed, the UK has agreed to pay Kigali under the controversial plan.
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However, a National Audit Office (NAO) report has revealed millions more in spending including £11,000 for each migrant’s plane ticket.
Labour branded the figures “the national scandal the Tories have been trying to hide”.
The Rwanda policy was announced in April 2022 but no flights have taken off yet as the scheme has been mired in a series of legal challenges.
Despite this, the government has already paid the government in Kigali £220m under the Economic Transformation and Integration Fund designed to support Rwanda’s growth.
It was also already known that an extra £50m was earmarked for the partnership for next year. But the NAO revealed the same sum will also be sent to Rwanda in 2025 and in 2026, taking the cost to £370m.
On top of that, once the first 300 migrants have been relocated, ministers have agreed to put another £120m into the fund, lifting the total to £490m.
In addition, an extra £20,000 will be paid to Rwanda for every asylum seeker relocated there.
The Home Office will also separately pay nearly £151,000 per person to cover asylum processing and integration costs, such as accommodation, food, healthcare and education, over five years if they stay in the country.
If they decide to leave, the UK would halt payments for that person, but would still give Rwanda a one-off £10,000 to help facilitate their departure.
