Man detained by Home Office told he is being sent to Rwanda, says NGO

An asylum seeker who turned up for a routine Home Office appointment on Monday was detained and told that he was being sent to Rwanda, an NGO has said.

In what is believed to be the first potential deportation case under the Rwanda scheme since Rishi Sunak’s bill received royal assent, the Sudanese man was held in Croydon, south London, the organisation Soas Detainee Support (SDS) told the Guardian.

The man said he had arrived to sign in but was informed that he would be deported to east Africa.

A government impact assessment released on Tuesday warned that changes to guidance would result in more vulnerable and traumatised people being held and deported.

It was revealed on Tuesday night that a man who had his asylum claim in the UK rejected had become the first person to be relocated to Rwanda – but under a different, voluntary removal scheme.

The man, understood to be of African origin, was flown on a commercial flight on Monday. In exchange for agreeing to relocate to Rwanda, he received a payment of up to £3,000, government sources told the Sun.

Official figures released on Monday suggested thousands of people the government hoped to deport to Rwanda had stopped reporting to the Home Office.

According to SDS, the Sudanese man detained in Croydon is one of three people being held after attending the Lunar House immigration reporting centre. Another detainee is Afghan, it said.

A spokesperson for SDS said: “We have been in touch with three asylum seekers who were detained on Monday after attending the Lunar House immigration reporting centre. All three meet the government’s criteria for deportation to Rwanda, although none have received notices of intent yet.

“They are also from countries with high asylum grant rates. One of them reports being told by immigration enforcement staff that they were being detained in order to be deported to Rwanda.”

SDS – set up by students at the School of Oriental and African Studies, a London university, in 2005 – offers advice and support to detainees.

It said it had received “an alarmingly high number of calls” since the government announced its goal of detaining asylum seekers en masse in preparation for a Rwanda flight.

“Some of our members were also present yesterday outside Eaton House immigration reporting centre [in Hounslow, west London] and saw at least three people be detained and taken away in enforcement vans,” an SDS spokesperson said. “However, we are unable to confirm whether they were detained for the purposes of the Rwanda scheme.”

An impact assessment examined how changes to the law introduced this week would affect detained “adults at risk”, who include victims of sexual violence, transgender people, individuals with learning difficulties and those with post-traumatic stress disorder.

It concluded that the changes would allow the home secretary, rather than the courts, to determine what constitutes a reasonable period of detention for vulnerable people.

The document said: “The latest amendments to the policy revise the previous aim to reduce the number of vulnerable people in detention.

“This aim is no longer considered compatible with the fact that the immigration detention estate is growing in response to the government’s change in approach to how immigration detention is used.

“It logically follows that a rise in the detained population will result in a rise in those that are considered vulnerable.”

Another impact assessment on the Home Office’s website on Monday suggested the department was in contact with 38% of those it intended to remove to Rwanda.

Only 2,145 “continue to report to the Home Office and can be located for detention”, the impact assessment said, of the 5,700 it had identified to put on the first flights.

The Guardian disclosed on Sunday that the government planned to start holding people for deportation this week.

A Home Office spokesperson declined to comment directly on the detentions at Lunar House.

“Now that the Safety of Rwanda Act has passed and our treaty with Rwanda ratified, government is entering the final phase of operationalising this landmark policy to tackle illegal migration and stop the boats,” they said.

“This includes detaining people in preparation for the first flight, which is set to take off to Rwanda in 10-12 weeks.”

Commenting on the changes affecting adults at risk, the Home Office said: “We continue to ensure that individuals are held in safe and decent conditions. It’s right that we have adapted our approach to the use of immigration detention in response to the global challenge of illegal migration, so that we can remove those with no right to be here.”