Fury as £1.5b of taxpayer cash goes to groups fighting Rwanda asylum scheme

Nigel Farage critiques the government's migrant plan

Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been handed to organisations fighting plans to remove asylum seekers to Rwanda.

New analysis shows the Government gave nearly £1.5billion to groups opposing its efforts to end the small boat crossings.

It comes as ministers vowed to fight a Court of Appeal ruling that the Rwanda policy is unlawful.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said on Saturday night: “Despite this judgement, our commitment to stopping the boats is as strong as ever.”

On Saturday night it emerged the Church of England has also attacked the Government’s immigration policies, by accusing Ministers of creating a “boom market” for people smugglers.

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In a briefing paper for MPs, bishops said: “Fees to traffickers and smugglers are not simply paid up-front, but often include conditional labour, entrapment and exploitation in the UK to work off the debt incurred from being trafficked. In this way, far from creating deterrence, the UK’s approach is creating a boom market for criminal enterprises.”

The handouts were on Saturday night branded taxpayer-funded anti-government propaganda “on a global scale”.

Organisations receiving funding include the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, which advised judges to rule against the government with a submission expressing “longstanding and well-known concerns” about the Rwanda plan.

UNHCR said it was “not a claimant in the proceedings but advised the court on matters of international refugee law”.

It also encouraged MPs and members of the House of Lords to block the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill, saying in March: “We urge the Government, and all MPs and Peers, to reconsider the Bill and pursue more humane and practical policy solutions.”

Funding has also gone to the International Organization For Migration, which has said that it is “deeply concerned” about the Government’s Illegal Migration Bill.

The two global bodies were awarded more than £1.4billion between them from 2012 to 2021. In addition, the Refugee Council accepted £20million in grants from 2017 to 2022 as well as contracts worth £10million, along with funding from the National Lottery.

It has attacked the “inhumanity” of the Rwanda plan and claimed it “had to directly intervene to stop young people being removed to Rwanda”.

Last week Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon issued a statement welcoming the Court of Appeal ruling, but complained it did not go far enough. He said: “We’re disappointed that they have not concluded that the overall policy is unlawful.”

Tom Rylan, a policy analyst with the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “After 70 years of pumping your hard-earned cash into UN bodies and political charities, this same government is facing taxpayer-funded lobbying on a now global scale.

“If the Government wants to take back control of asylum policy it must get serious about puncturing the world wide blob.”

He accused global quangos of “using their huge influence and resources to influence internal UK policy”.

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Mr Rylan said: “That’s not to deny their important role identifying refugees, conducting health checks, and resettling them in the United Kingdom.

“But these bodies go well beyond these important goals and show little consideration for the difficult political and moral questions that face governments dealing with tens of thousands of asylum claims each year.”

Conservative MP Sir Mike Penning, a former Home Office Minister, said: “Tax-payers’ money should not be used for propaganda opposing the policy of the elected government. Asylum seekers should be treated humanely, housed and fed, and this is what funding should be used for.

“It’s not there to try to block a manifesto commitment being put into effect.”

Meanwhile, fellow Tory MP Marco Longhi said: “The time has come for Government to decide if it is right to use taxpayer’s money to fund organisations who actively work against Government policy. There are propaganda machines locally and internationally who clearly object to our Rwanda plan and other Government policies.

“So how can it be fair to taxpayers or even rational by any measure that their money should be used against the very things they voted for? This is utterly bizarre and I shall be seeking to bring changes to this nonsense.”

On Saturday night Rachael Orr, chair of Trustees at the Refugee Council, said: “Like many charities, one of our primary purposes is
to advocate for our beneficiaries – refugees and people seeking asylum.

“We use our expertise and knowledge gained from the delivery of our services to constructively engage and challenge Government to take action to improve the lives of refugees which is in line with our charitable objects and purpose.

“As set out by the Charity Commission any charity, including the Refugee Council, has a right to lawfully campaign based on the cause it is entrusted with.”

Writing for the Sunday Express, Mr Jenrick insisted Rwanda was a safe country with “a proud history of welcoming those in need”.

He said: “They are recognised globally for receiving vulnerable migrants from detention centres in Libya, and for welcoming and providing Afghan girls with an education when they were denied it by the Taliban.”

And the removals policy was backed by former Labour MP Simon Danczuk, who said suggestions that Rwanda is unsafe were “verging on racism”.

He said: “This view that ‘well, it’s in Africa, it must be a desperate country’ – that’s verging on racism. Rwanda is often described as the Singapore or the Switzerland of Africa, so it’s an exceptionally safe country.”

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson repeated his support for the Rwanda policy in a newspaper column last week.

But he warned it may not be possible to begin removals before the next general election, widely-expected next year.

He said: “We must be realistic. There is now a good chance that the law’s delays will be so severe that no illegal arrivals will be sent to Rwanda this year, and perhaps not even next year.”

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