EMMA LEWELL-BUCK MP: The Rwanda Scheme is a costly, ineffective distraction

This week, the Government’s ludicrous Rwanda Bill returned to Parliament. Two years on from the initial plan to distract from the Tories’ woeful record on asylum processing, the failing scheme has consumed valuable Parliamentary time.

Labour has opposed the scheme from the beginning because it is a costly, ineffective distraction from the core of our country’s immigration issues.

Under this legislation flights to Rwanda will deport less than 1% of asylum seekers entering the UK and will cost an astonishing £576 million.

The 300 individuals who have been highlighted as the first to be removed would incur a cost to our country of £1.92 million per-person after we have paid Rwanda and considered processing costs.

This astonishingly short-sighted and costly measure is designed to secure a few symbolic flights for a failing Prime Minister in advance of a General Election.

The British public are footing this bill is because the Tories have cut asylum processing staff and plugged the holes with inexperienced and low-paid replacements.

If assessments aren’t completed in a timely fashion, then those waiting for an asylum decision need somewhere to stay whilst their application is being considered. This is why the backlog has resulted in £6 million per day being spent on hotels.

Anyone who has ever met or spoken to an asylum seeker will know that they have often escaped inhumane and cruel treatment; to leave their claims in limbo for such long periods of time is deeply traumatic.

Labour will scrap the Rwanda scheme and invest in boosting Britain’s border security; including a new cross border police unit to smash the criminal smuggler gangs exploiting asylum seekers.

We will also negotiate seriously with European police networks, ending the tit-for-tat childishness on display over the last eight years where eight different Home Secretaries have failed at negotiating with our French counterparts.

The Tories have prioritised cuts, sticking plasters and nasty rhetoric over long-term planning. They broke our asylum system, they are the reason for extortionate hotel bills, don’t let them blame some of the most vulnerable people in our world for their own failures.