It will cost £169,000 per person to send illegal migrants to countries such as Rwanda, according to new analysis published by the government.
An economic assessment of the Illegal Migration Bill also estimated that each person sent abroad to the east African nation, or a similar country, will save the taxpayer between £106,000 and £165,000 per person.
If the government wants to break even on the project, it would need to deter about 37% of people from crossing the Channel, the analysis estimated.
“This cost will only be incurred for people who arrive in the UK illegally. If an individual is deterred from entering the UK illegally, then no cost would be incurred,” the assessment notes.
An exact estimate for how much it would cost to send someone to Rwanda was not available, as the details are “commercially sensitive”.
However, the UK only has a deal in place to send people to Rwanda.
And things could get more expensive if the UK were to agree deportation deals with additional nations, as the government has indicated it wants to.
Setting up fees were not included in the £169,000 calculation – and it was noted the UK has paid Rwanda £140m so far and no one has made the journey there.
A breakdown of the costs said that a third country like Rwanda would get £105,000, the Home Office £18,000, costs for flying and escorting would be £22,000, costs for detention would be £7,000 and costs to the Ministry of Justice would be £1,000.
An extra 9% was added to account for estimates being optimistic, bringing the figure to £169,000.
And as unaccompanied children are excluded from being deported, the analysis warns that more young people – or those claiming to be so – could arrive under the scheme.
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Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the assessment proves that “doing nothing is not an option”.
She said: “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.”
The Illegal Migration Bill seeks to prevent people who enter the UK illegally from making asylum claims, and instead aims to detain them before they get deported.
It is currently being debated in the Lords before it heads back to the Commons.
Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, branded the assessment “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,” she said.
“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.”
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Reacting to the publication, the SNP noted that deporting all 11,000 people who have arrived in the UK on small boats this year would cost £1.8bn, according to the analysis.
The party’s home affairs spokesperson, Alison Thewliss, said: “”The astronomical cost of this policy adds an extra layer of disgust in those already opposed to these plans.
“At a time where so many are forced to flee persecution and unimaginable terrors it speaks to the inhumane priorities of the Tories that they would seek to enforce this.”