The Rwanda deportation bill by numbers: How nearly 80,000 migrants have arrived ... trends now
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The passing of Rishi Sunak's Rwanda deportation bill through Parliament comes more than two years after the plan was first announced.
Nearly 80,000 migrants have arrived across the Channel since Boris Johnson unveiled the scheme in April 2022 - with its total cost soaring past £500,000million.
But with the policy finally approved, an emboldened Mr Sunak has vowed to get the first planes into the air within 10 to 12 weeks - citing a string of numbers as evidence of the preparatory work that has already been done.
These include getting 200 caseworkers ready to identify asylum seekers who will be served with 'removal directions' in the coming days, and increasing spaces in detention centres to 2,200 in order to hold the deportees until they can leave.
Some 150 judges have been earmarked to deal with last-minute legal appeals in 25 courtrooms, while an airfield has also been put on standby - with 500 escorts already trained and another 300 ready in the next few weeks.
The scheme will allow the Government to send asylum seekers 'entering the UK illegally' to Rwanda for their asylum claims to be processed there.
Only 1,850 small boat migrants were removed from the UK last year - a tiny fraction of the overall numbers.
Refugee charities oppose the policy as unethical and unworkable, and multiple legal challenges have both delayed it from being enacted and dramatically increased the cost for taxpayers.
Its overall cost stands at more than half a billion pounds, according to the figures released to the National Audit Office. The spending watchdog also found it will cost £1.8m for each of the first 300 people ministers deport to Kigali.
Home Office estimates suggest the cost per individual of the relocations would be roughly £169,000 'over the multiyear lifetime of the scheme'.
