The Government’s plan to send small boat migrants to Rwanda does not represent good value for money, a former immigration minister has said, after it emerged the cost of deportation will be £169,000 per person. 

Caroline Nokes, who was immigration minister from January 2018 to July 2019, said she had “always been concerned” that the Rwanda policy was “very difficult to justify”. 

Ms Nokes, who is the Tory chairwoman of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, said questions surrounding the cost of the policy were “perfectly legitimate”. 

Asked if £169,000 per person sounded like value for money, Ms Nokes told Sky News: “No, I don’t think it does, and I have always been concerned that the Rwanda scheme is not only very difficult to justify why we should be sending asylum seekers to Rwanda to be processed within the Rwandan asylum system when actually we should have better systems set up here to do it. 

“But the value for money question is a perfectly legitimate and important one and it is worrying when the Home Office themselves are saying that they can’t be certain that these figures are accurate and they are all predicated on the Rwandan scheme acting as a deterrent and to date we have not seen it act as a deterrent.” 

A Home Office economic analysis published yesterday revealed deporting a migrant to a “safe country” such as Rwanda will cost the taxpayer an estimated £169,000. The analysis found it costs £106,000 to accommodate and support each migrant in the UK, but suggested the difference could be offset by the deterrent effect of the Rwanda policy.

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