5,600 MIGRANTS IDENTIFIED FOR FIRST RWANDA FLIGHTS

Groundwork under way for first flights to start removing thousands of illegal migrants receiving taxpayer support

- Michael Knowles

MORE than 5,600 illegal migrants have been shortlisted for deportation flights to Rwanda, the Daily Express can reveal.

An internal Home Office document - seen by this newspaper - says "5,664 individuals are currently in scope for potential inclusion for relocation to Rwanda".

Around 3,000 of these are being "supported", meaning they are staying in taxpayer-funded hotels or asylum accommodation.

The revelation comes as Home Secretary James Cleverly told MPs yesterday that the £240million Rwanda scheme is "uncapped".

But he insisted he could not "speculate" on how many migrants will be deported to capital Kigali.

Mr Cleverly, below, said the figure will depend on how many returns agreements the Government can strike with countries around the world.

The Home Affairs Select Committee was told that 33,085 illegal migrants have arrived in the UK since new laws came into force in July banning them from claiming asylum. Mr Cleverly said: “It may well be if we’re successful with returns agreements, if circumstances in other countries change, it may well be that the figure is quite low.

“It could be nearly at that figure [33,000], but the point is the number of people that we might send to Rwanda is entirely contingent on a whole set of other work that we’re doing.”

The Home Secretary added that it was “entirely feasible a significant number within that cohort will be returned to their country of origin”, adding more returns agreements could “have a very significant impact”.