The United Kingdom will pay at least £370 million to Rwanda as part of its plan to relocate asylum seekers there.
The information was contained in a report released by the country’s National Audit Office (NAO) on Friday.
In April 2022, the UK announced that it had entered a migration partnership with Rwanda.
The partnership falls under the government’s third country asylum processing policy, where individuals identified as residing in the UK illegally, or seeking asylum after arriving illegally, are relocated to a safe third country.
Under the partnership, the UK government provides development funding to Rwanda and will meet processing and integration costs for each relocated person.
The Home Office is responsible for administering the partnership.
As of last month, the Home Office had paid £220 million to Rwanda.
The UK also agreed to make installment payments of £50 million in April 2024, 2025 and 2026.
The BBC reports that up to £150,000 will also be paid for each person sent to the east African country over a five-year period.
Labour said the new figures in the NAO report were a “national scandal”.
However, the Home Office said: “Doing nothing is not without significant costs”.
A spokesperson for the Home Office said: “Unless we act, the cost of housing asylum seekers is set to reach £11bn per year by 2026”.
“Illegal migration costs lives and perpetuates human trafficking, and it is therefore right that we fund solutions to break this unsustainable cycle,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The NAO report comes as MPs call for greater transparency over the cost of the scheme.
MPs have approved legislation seeking to revive the plan, which will be debated in the House of Lords next week, with critics likely to harp on the latest costs.
