Inside Rwanda's white elephant that's cost British taxpayers £220m: The ... trends now

Staff at a Rwanda hostel earmarked since 2022 for asylum seekers are so bored waiting, they are dusting leaves from indoor plans and picking weeds from the lawn – to the tune of more £220 million of taxpayers' money.

The Hope Hostel is one of several properties selected by the Rwandan government to house illegal immigrants who will be flown from the UK in July after PM Rishi Sunak vowed 'nothing will stand in our way'.

But with dozens human rights lawyers waiting in the wings to fight claims and a Labour government odd on to take power - and who have already vowed to scrap the scheme - taxpayers will be furious at what looks increasingly like a costly white elephant.

Earlier his week MailOnline was the first British news organisation to visit the Hope Hostel since the Government's Rwanda Bill was passed late on Monday night and was given a guided tour of the premises.

Set in the smart Kagugu district of Kigali, home to numerous expat houses, international schools and a few minutes drive from the plush greens of the city's only golf course.

Hope Hostel was selected as a site to house 100 claimants and the managing director and staff told us they had been '100 per cent ready since 2022' and were eager to welcome potential residents.

But because of parliamentary deadlock and numerous legal battles no asylum seekers have arrived and so despite a block booking of two years, with the help of UK cash, all the 42 employees have been doing is cleaning, dusting and weeding – continuously for the last 670 days.

When we were shown around the four-storey building, we were astonished to see staff on every level, wiping the dust from leaves of indoor palm trees, outside picking stray weeds from the lawn or hand clipping the hedges to within an inch of their life.

In fact, the manicured gardens at Hope Hostel are so pristine they wouldn't look out of place in a typical English village tennis club and are easily the envy of any groundsman looking for a verdant lawn.

When they do eventually - or should that be if – arrive, claimants will be housed in twin rooms with a comfortable mosquito covered net bed, sliders, basic toiletries and a welcome pack of clothes.

Because the majority are expected to be Muslims a personal Koran and prayer mat is also made available in each room and there are also two computer suites and two red carpeted prayer rooms.

The rooms all have balconies, and the fortunate ones will have spectacular view over a valley towards Kigali's central business district and the imposing 6,000ft Mt Kigali which dominates the horizon.

On entering through the security gates at the guarded complex the first thing that greets you is the Hope Hostel slogan – 'Come as a guest leave as a friend' – but UK taxpayers will be left thinking 'if only'.

Hope Hostel once housed orphans whose parents had been killed in the 1994 Rwandan genocide which saw 800,000 Tutsi's slaughtered by Hutu extremists in a massacres that lasted 100 days and whose anniversary is this month.

Ismael Bakina, managing director of the Hope Hostel, told the Mail: 'We were selected in June 2022 for this project and it's not my place to talk politics, but we have been ready and witing for two years.

'We are 100 per cent ready and if asylum seekers arrived from the UK tonight it would not be a problem for us, we have been block booked the past two years and the staff here have been busy preparing themselves.

'It's a shame no one has arrived yet but we can guarantee a hospital welcome for them – the food and beverage team are ready but they haven't had to cook anything yet apart for meals for the staff.'

One member of staff said: 'It's been the same thing day in day out for the last two years, clean, clean, clean and we wait, wait, wait for people to arrive and no one has maybe they will soon.

'I spend my days wiping dust from the indoor plants, then wiping the dust from the railings on each floor and then cleaning the bathrooms but because no one uses them they are always spotless.'

The Government's Rwanda plan was introduced in 2022 and at one stage a plane was ready and waiting to depart from Stansted but in the end it was cancelled and in the intervening years there have been a steady stream of court cases.

Activists and opposition MPs have insisted the scheme – which would see those who enter the UK illegally flown to Rwanda - is illegal and inhumane and called into question the country's human rights record.

The plan is meant as a deterrent to those migrants who would risk their lives to cross the English Channel and it's a policy which Mr Sunak is adamant 'will stop the boats' with the main target fit young men who are not fleeing war or persecution.

Those who have been flown to Rwanda will have their claims assessed there and if granted will be able to remain there and work or leave for another country but not the UK and they will not be sent back to where they left originally.