The cost of new technology platforms has been pegged as one of the biggest costs associated with the previous administration’s plan to send asylum seekers to the east African country
Government spent more than £100m delivering technology systems and services for the now-defunct scheme to send those claiming asylum in the UK to Rwanda.
The £134m in IT costs represent one of the biggest areas of spending in an overall outlay of £715m on the failed immigration policy, according to a report in the Observer.
The tech spending was provided in a freedom of information response. Additionally, Whitehall sources told the newspaper that extra digital systems were needed to ensure that the programme complied with data-protection legislation – particularly in regards to the transfer across borders of individuals’ biometric data. New platforms were also required to support the processing and provision of visas and transport back to the UK for anyone who successful appealed against an asylum decision, the article claims.
Related content
- Home Office signs £3m sensor deal for round-the-clock tracking of ‘small vessels’ in UK waters
- Home Office buys thousands of ‘migrant tracker’ wristbands as it expands monitoring
- MoD begins work on IT system to register and track evacuees from crisis zones
The Rwanda plan – in which those seeking asylum in the UK would instead be sent to the east African country to be processed and, if successful, resettled there – was first announced by the previous administration in April 2022.
Having been subject to huge amounts of controversy and criticism, alongside various legal challenges, no one was ever deported from the UK to Rwanda before the 2024 general election – after which the new Labour government immediately ditched the policy. It has since been revealed that only four volunteers were relocated via the programme, with about £50m spent laying the groundwork for planned flights that never took off.