A staggering £700 million was spent on the failed Rwanda scheme which saw just four migrants sent voluntarily to the African country, the new Home Secretary revealed on Monday
Yvette Cooper branded the huge cost under the previous Conservative government the “most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen”.
She also claimed that the Tory Rwanda policy could have cost £10 billion in total.
“I have been shocked by what I have found”, Ms Cooper told the Commons.
She added: "Two years after the previous Government launched it, I can report it has already cost the British taxpayer £700million, in order to send just four volunteers [to Rwanda].
"Those costs include £290million payments to Rwanda, chartering flights that never took off, detaining hundreds of people and then releasing them, and paying for more than a thousand civil servants to work on the scheme.
"A scheme to send four people, it is the most shocking waste of taxpayers' money I have ever seen. Looking forward, the costs are set to get worse.
“Even if the scheme had ever got going it's clear it would only cover a minority of arrivals, yet a substantial portion of future costs were fixed costs."
Ms Cooper also accused the previous Conservative government of creating an "asylum Hotel California" in which people arrived in the system but never leave.
She raised concerns over "legal contradictions" in the Illegal Migration Act and said "no decision" can be taken on an individual's case if they arrived in the UK after March 2023 and meet key conditions in the legislation.
She said: "They just stay in the asylum system. Even if they've come here unlawfully for economic reasons and should be returned to their home country, they won't be because the law doesn't work.
"Only a small minority might ever have been sent to Rwanda and everyone else stays indefinitely in taxpayer-funded accommodation and support.”
Ms Cooper said she had been "shocked to discover that the Home Office has effectively stopped making the majority of asylum decisions", adding: "It is the most extraordinary policy that I've ever seen.
“We have inherited asylum Hotel California - people arrive in the asylum system and they never leave.
“The previous government's policy was effectively an amnesty and that is the wrong thing to do."
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly accused Ms Cooper of using "made up numbers" and criticised the "level of discourtesy" to the Rwandan government.
"The Labour Party and indeed the Home Secretary in her statement likes to talk tough on border security, but today's statement, despite all the hyperbole and the made up numbers, is basically an admission of what we knew all along,” he said.
"That the Labour Party have scrapped the Rwanda partnership on ideological grounds, removed a deterrent, a deterrent, which the National Crime Agency said that we needed
"And the level of discourtesy, directed towards the people and government of Rwanda is quite breathtaking.”
Nearly 1,500 migrants have arrived in the UK across in the English Channel in the last week, figures show.
Some 1,499 people made the journey in 27 boats from July 15 to 21, while the French coastguard confirmed two people died amid rescue operations off the northern French coast.
The maritime prefecture also said on Sunday that a further 71 migrants were saved in the Channel, but some travellers on the boat who were not requesting assistance were allowed to continue the journey.
They said this decision was made given the risk of "falling overboard or of injury to people in the event of forced intervention".
Some 114 people arrived on Sunday in two boats, according to latest Home Office data, bringing the provisional total for the year so far to 15,831.
This is 9 per cent higher than the number recorded this time last year (14,534).
The arrivals also come as Border Force appeared to seize a yacht after an incident in the Channel on Saturday.
The Border Force vessel Hurricane was seen towing the small boat into Dover before securing it in the harbour.
Crossings tend to be attempted in dinghies, the use of a yacht is unusual.
The Labour Government has vowed to tackle people-smuggling gangs orchestrating the crossings by setting up a Border Command Unit and through "work we'll be carrying out with European partners".
Speaking on July 18, Prime Minister Keir Starmer reacted to the deaths of five people in two incidents in the Channel, saying it was "a chilling reminder of the human cost of this vile trade."
