In response to the Government detaining people seeking asylum to deport them to Rwanda, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said:

“By drip-feeding updates about ‘round-ups’ and ‘detentions’ the Government is callously seeking to exploit the predicament of people - many already suffering severe trauma from past persecution and abuse in countries they've fled and on journeys they've made. 

“The entire Rwanda scheme is a human rights scandal, as is the shameful policy to cease considering asylum claims in the UK that has led to it.

“The Government has made the UK an international freeloader on refugee matters - expecting other countries to comply with international law obligations to provide asylum that the UK refuses.

“In whipping up this febrile anti-asylum atmosphere the Government is doing yet more damage to its fast-diminishing reputation as a law and human rights-abiding nation while potentially doing serious mental and physical harm to the people caught up in this situation.”