Rwanda bill declared 'farce' after thousands of migrants.abscond in wake of ruling

Rishi Sunak is facing accusations his flagship Rwanda policy has become a “farce” after ministers promised to find thousands of missing asylum seekers earmarked for deportation.

- KATE DEVLIN , ZOE GRUNEWALD

Police raids could be among a range of measures used to locate them, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins suggested. She said: “We want the message to go out loud and clear that if somebody doesn’t report as they should do, they shouldn’t think that they’ll get away with it. They will be found.”

Of 5,700 people identified for removal, just 2,145 “continue to report to the Home Office and can be located for detention”, according to an official document published by the department. The revelation is the latest in a series of setbacks to the scheme to give asylum seekers a one-way ticket to the African country, which has yet to see a flight take off two years after it was announced.

No 10 said it was “not accurate” to say the Home Office was unable to locate about half of those told they could be deported, and that many were “residing in Home Office accommodation”.

However, an ex-border chief said the group had “done a disappearing act”. Kevin Saunders, who was the chief immigration officer at Border Force, said he was not surprised “in the slightest” that the Home Office had lost contact with them.

“I would not like to say that the Home Office are telling porkies here, but let’s say that they temporarily can’t find them,” he said, as he predicted they would “probably” turn up in Ireland. “They know that they are in the frame to be removed, they don’t want to be removed so they are going to disappear,” he added.