The Home Office has been accused of “cynical” and “unethical” behaviour after offering millions of pounds to refugee charities to help settle newly deported people.
A government contract put out to tender earlier this month offers to pay £15m over three years to NGOs who work with people being removed from the UK to 11 countries, including Ethiopia, Iraq and Zimbabwe.
In August, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, announced a plan to increase removals of those who have had their asylum claims rejected to 2018 levels over the next six months, meaning more than 14,000 deportations by the end of the year.
The contract, entitled Home Office Reintegration Programme, asks for bidders from “non-statutory sector organisations that are charities and non-profit making organisations” to help with temporary accommodation, food, and cash assistance once they arrive in their country of origin. Other countries covered by the contract will be Albania, Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Nigeria, Pakistan and Vietnam.
Cooper has been sent a letter signed by more than 30 NGO officials from the UK and overseas rejecting the contract.
“We stand united against this attempt to make us complicit in the department’s harmful and divisive anti-migrant agenda,” the joint letter said.
“We know that policies of deterrence do not work – rather, have been shown time and time again to be divisive and dangerous.”
The letter raises concerns about the safety of people removed to countries such as Ethiopia. It says that nearly four in every five Ethiopian asylum applicants – 79% – in the UK in 2023 were granted at first application.
“Pursuing an agenda of removals and deportations will tear communities apart, in the face of overwhelming evidence that a new approach is needed. Many people at risk of removal have lived in the UK for years or even decades, and have put down roots here,” the letter said.
The list also includes countries whose nationals have a high rate of having their asylum claims treated as withdrawn. More than half of Albanian people seeking sanctuary in the UK had their asylum claims treated as withdrawn in 2023, meaning they have not had their claims decided under the UK asylum system.
Many NGOs have worked closely with the Home Office and applied for government contracts in the past. Charity executives said that on this occasion, they cannot agree with the practice of working with people who have been removed from the UK.
The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) accused the government of attempting to “bribe” NGOs.
Mary Atkinson, campaigns and networks manager at the JCWI, said: “Migrants’ rights organisations like ours, and the other signatories to this letter, struggle to get enough funding.
“In this context, offering charities millions of pounds to become part of the system putting our clients at risk is cynical and deeply unethical.” Other signatories include Refugee Action, Safe Passage International, Praxis and Migrant Voice.
After dropping the Conservative government’s plan to deport people to Rwanda, which cost £700m, Keir Starmer’s government has said it will rapidly increase removals of people who have had their asylum claims rejected.
The Home Office plans to increase detention capacity with 290 beds at two immigration removal centres, Campsfield in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, and Haslar in Gosport, Hampshire.
It has also emerged that the government has agreed to just one of 33 recommendations made to prevent a repeat of the abuse experienced by people in the Brook House immigration removal centre scandal, the inquiry chair has told the BBC.
Kate Eves said the government was failing to listen to her proposals for “urgent change”, a year on from the public inquiry’s final report.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The new government has begun delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to remove people with no right to be in the UK and ensure the rules are respected and enforced.
“Continued international cooperation with partner nations plays a critical role in this, and we will be working closely with a number of countries across the globe.”
