Dozens of rejected asylum seekers from Vietnam will be returned to the country on Wednesday, using funds that the previous government had set aside for the Rwanda program.
The Labour government scrapped the plan, which would have seen asylum seekers sent to the East African country, within hours of taking power, calling it a “gimmick” and a waste of money.
But the government is now set to use a plane meant to move people to Rwanda to send about 55 people to Vietnam instead, Labour sources said.
They are being expelled on the basis of a return agreement, rather than being deported to a third country.
According to the sources, it is the first time since 2021 that a flight has returned rejected asylum seekers to the country.
In the first quarter of 2024, nearly one in five registered small boat travellers came from Vietnam, the highest number of any nationality.
The government has never released full details of its contract to deport people to Rwanda.
But it seems that the funds allocated for the plan are now being used for the Vietnam flight.
The people who need to be removed have probably been in the system for some time, long before Labour came to power.
A Labour source said: “The Tories have created chaos in our asylum and immigration system.
“Tens of thousands of people are in the system and are allowed to stay in hotels or asylum centers forever.
“The Labour government has set up a new reporting and enforcement department, with up to 1,000 new staff, to speed up the removal of people who shouldn’t be here.”
Meanwhile, the government has also announced the contract for the Bibby Stockholm barge, which will house asylum seekers off the Dorset coast, would not be extended after January.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, this measure is part of an effort to reduce the backlog of asylum applications and improve the system.
On Monday Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the House of Commons the Rwanda plan had cost taxpayers £700 million and resulted in only four people being voluntarily returned to the country.
The plan was intended to stop people crossing the Channel in small boats, but was blocked by legal challenges.
Ms Cooper said scrapping the scheme would save the government £220 million in further direct payments to Rwanda over the next few years, plus a further £750 million that had been set aside this year to fund the scheme.
She said some of the money saved would be invested in a new Border Security Command, which would see border control officers, police and intelligence agencies work together to tackle people-smuggling gangs.
The government has also removed Ministry of Interior staff from the program to handle enforcement and the return of rejected asylum seekers.
Labour has confirmed it will resume processing all asylum applications, including those who arrived in the UK illegally.
The company says it plans to send people who do not have the right to stay in the UK back to their home countries.
However, the Conservatives accuse Labour of effectively offering an “amnesty” by spreading the message that “if you arrive by small boat you can claim asylum”.
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly questioned how people who had been refused asylum in countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and Syria could be sent back.
He told the House of Commons: “Has (the Home Secretary) started negotiations on readmission agreements with the Taliban, the ayatollahs of Iran or Assad in Syria?”
This year, more than 15,000 people have already crossed the Channel in small boats.
The figure is higher than the figures for the same period in the previous four years, although there is a decrease over 2023 as a whole compared to 2022.
