The Home Office has condemned scammers who “cruelly attempt” to trick people by pretending they can help them go to Rwanda in exchange for a £3,000 government payment.
The reported scam is the latest blow to government plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The main scheme involves forcibly sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda who arrive in the UK via irregular means such as small boats.
On Tuesday news of a second Rwanda scheme was reported in the Times and later announced by government. This one is a voluntary returns programme for refused asylum seekers. The Home Office is offering £3,000 incentive payments to encourage this group to go to Rwanda. Asylum seekers who started to receive calls from Home Office officials on Tuesday asking them to go to Rwanda were left in a state of panic with some saying they thought they had no choice but to get on a plane.
On Friday there was a further development suggesting that the new voluntary Rwanda scheme is being targeted by fraudsters. In a highly unusual move, Migrant Help, the charity that runs a free helpline for asylum seekers on behalf of the Home Office, issued a tweet saying: “It has come to our attention that a number of fraudulent calls purporting to be from Migrant Help have been made to our clients pretending to offer them voluntary return to Rwanda. The calls are made on a number which is withheld by the caller. Please be aware that these are NOT from our organisation and are fraudulent.”
An immigration lawyer, Sonia Lenegan, raised concerns about the reported scam.
She posted on X after Migrant Help’s statement emerged: “All the more need for this to be done in writing and not over the phone.” She added: “Also how have they got these phone numbers?”
The voluntary Rwanda scheme has received condemnation from Conservative MPs on the right of the party, including the former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, and from immigration lawyers, who have raised concerns.
Tom Nunn, the legal director of the South Yorkshire Refugee Law and Justice charity, whose refused asylum seeker client received a genuine call from the Home Office earlier this week asking if he wanted to go to Rwanda, said: “We’ve already had a number of clients calling us in a panic and we have had to reassure people that it is voluntary.”
Nunn said he was concerned about those with mental health issues being caused distress by the phone calls.
Jenrick wrote on X: “Symbolic flights of people being paid to leave isn’t a strategy to stop the boats and end this national security emergency. If the reports are accurate, these voluntary returns would consume Rwanda’s finite resources, and so actually make the swift, enforced removal of small boat arrivals that are required to establish the intended deterrent effect much harder.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We condemn in the strongest terms anyone cruelly attempting to defraud individuals based on our voluntary returns scheme. Individuals will not usually be contacted from withheld numbers. Those wishing to explore the Rwandan voluntary returns scheme will be issued with relevant paperwork and are advised to take legal advice.”
