The Tory Government's controversial plans to deport migrants to Rwanda will cost £169,000 per person, official documents show.
A long-awaited economic assessment of the Illegal Migration Bill revealed revealed it would cost £63,000 more to hand asylum seekers a one-way ticket to the African country than to keep them in the UK.
The draconian "small boats" legislation, which is going through Parliament, aims to crack down on the numbers of people making the perilous Channel crossing to seek a better life in Britain.
The idea is that people will be deterred if they know they will be swiftly deported to Rwanda or another third country.
But the Home Office's own estimates show that deterring migrants from coming to Britain will save the taxpayer £106,000 per person - tens of thousands of pounds less than the cost of deporting them.
The document states: "This partial analysis estimates a net incremental cost of £63,000 per individual relocated."
Savings could rise to £165,000 per person if accommodation costs rise, the Home Office argued.
No flights have taken off to Rwanda yet as the policy has been tied up in legal challenges, with a Court of Appeal judgement looming this week.
The Government has already spent at least £1.3 million fighting legal battles over the Rwanda scheme, which has been widely condemned, with the UN branding it a clear breach of the Refugee Convention.
The Home Office report admitted that Government doesn't know whether the costly plans will help Rishi Sunak to achieve his pledge to "stop the boats".
The document said it is "not possible to estimate with precision the level of deterrence that the [Illegal Migration] Bill might achieve".
At least 37% of small boat arrivals would have to be deterred for there to be no additional cost to the taxpayer, the report said, but warned that the effects of the bill were “highly uncertain”.
Academic consensus shows "there is little to no evidence suggesting changes in a destination country’s policies have an impact on deterring people from leaving their countries of origin or travelling without valid permission, whether in search of refuge or for other reasons", it said.
The report warned of "unintended behavioural changes from migrants", which could include people trying to arrive in lorries instead of small boats, fraud and overstaying visas.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “This so-called impact assessment is a complete joke.
"By its own admission, this failing Conservative government is totally clueless on how much this Bill will cost or what the impact of any of its policies will be. They are taking the country for fools.
“The few figures the Home Office has produced show how chaotic and unworkable their plans are.
"It suggests that if Rishi Sunak were actually able to deliver on his promise to remove every asylum seeker who arrives in the UK it would cost billions of pounds more even than the Tories’ broken asylum system today."
The Home Office said the costs of accommodating illegal migrants have spiralled since 2020, with annual bill of £3.6 billion.
It costs the taxpayer £6 million a day to accommodate 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “Our Impact Assessment shows that doing nothing is not an option.
“We cannot allow a system to continue which incentivises people to risk their lives and pay people smugglers to come to this country illegally, while placing an unacceptable strain on the UK taxpayer.
“I urge MPs and peers to back the Bill to stop the boats, so we can crack down on people smuggling gangs while bringing our asylum system back into balance.”
