Rwanda has opened the door to reviving its migrant deportation scheme with Britain if Nigel Farage becomes prime minister.
Mr Farage is promising to deport 600,000 asylum seekers within the first five years of a Reform government, should his party win the next general election.
As part of Reform’s plans to tackle the small boats crisis, titled ‘Operation Restoring Justice’, Mr Farage has said he will negotiate deals with third countries – such as Rwanda – to send migrants abroad.
The previous Tory government signed an agreement to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, although no flights ever took off and the deal was later scrapped by Labour.
Yolande Makolo, Rwanda’s government spokesperson, told The Times that the African country would consider reintroducing the scheme.
But this would require the UK to pay an outstanding £50million that Rwanda claims it is still owed from the Tories‘ Migration and Economic Development Partnership.
The Home Office denied Britain still owes money to Rwanda from the migrant deal.
A government spokesman told the newspaper: ‘As stated clearly in notes verbale between the UK and Rwanda, no further payments in relation to this policy will be made and Rwanda has waived any additional payments.’
It came as the Taliban said it is ‘ready and willing’ to work with Reform on accepting Afghans who have been deported from Britain.
Tory MP Dame Priti Patel pictured while she was Home Secretary signing the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta in 2022
A key plank of Reform’s ‘Operation Restoring Justice’ plan, unveiled by Nigel Farage and Zia Yusuf yesterday, is new migrant deals with other nations
The Islamist regime welcomed plans by Mr Farage’s party to sign new migrant returns deals with countries around the world, if they win power.
More Afghans have arrived in the UK in small boats than any other nationality in the past year, some 6,000, but only a handful have been returned in recent years.
Reform has said it will sign new migrant returns deals regardless of countries’ human rights records, with the party promising to hand over up to £2billion of UK taxpayers’ cash in exchange for potential agreements.
Senior party figure Zia Yusuf said it was ‘quite reasonable’ for public money to go to the Taliban given that Afghanistan already receives millions of pounds in foreign aid.
Mr Farage was asked at his policy launch in Oxfordshire on Tuesday about the risk that many of those sent back to Afghanistan would face torture or execution.
The Reform leader replied: ‘Does it bother me? It bothers me, but what really bothers me is what is happening on the streets of our country.’
In an interview at the weekend, Mr Farage had said: ‘I’m really sorry, but we can’t be responsible for everything that happens in the whole of the world.
‘I can’t be responsible for despotic regimes all over the world.’
But Mr Farage told the Mail that those who had served alongside UK and US forces in their home country would be spared deportation.
‘There were brave Afghans who supported the British forces and American forces during that 20-year war, who of course, absolutely, of course, deserve recompense for the enormous risks they took,’ he said.
A Taliban guard is pictured earlier this month celebrating the fourth anniversary of the Islamist regime’s takeover of Afghanistan
A French police vessel passes lifejackets to people on a dinghy as they cross the English Channel
Mr Yusuf insisted that an ‘infinitesimal’ number of Afghans crossing the Channel had served with the UK military.
Last night, the Taliban said it was ‘ready and willing’ to work with Mr Farage if he becomes prime minister.
A senior official told the Telegraph: ‘We are ready and willing to receive and embrace whoever he sends us.
‘We are prepared to work with anyone who can help end the struggles of Afghan refugees, as we know many of them do not have a good life abroad.
‘We will not take money to accept our own people, but we welcome aid to support newcomers, since there are challenges in accommodating and feeding those returning from Iran and Pakistan.
‘Afghanistan is home to all Afghans, and the Islamic Emirate is determined to make this country a place where everyone – those already here, those returning, or those being sent back from the West by Mr Farage or anyone else – can live with dignity.’
The Taliban official suggested that it might be easier to deal with Mr Farage if he were to become prime minister because of his ‘different’ views.
‘We will have to see what Mr Farage does when or if he becomes prime minister of Britain, but since his views are different, it may be easier to deal with him than with the current ones,’ he said.
‘We will accept anyone he sends, whether they are legal or illegal refugees in Britain.’
Even Downing Street opened the door to the Labour Government seeking a future returns deal with Afghanistan.
Asked about the prospect, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: ‘We’re not going to take anything off the table in terms of striking returns agreements with countries around the world.’
The Conservatives could also ‘potentially’ strike a deal with Afghanistan over migration if they win the next general election, the party’s chairman said this morning.
Asked directly if the Tories would set up a returns agreement with the Taliban-run country, Kevin Hollinrake told Times Radio: ‘Well, potentially, yes.’
The former minister added that his party’s deportation plan, which was published in May, is ‘far more comprehensive than the one we’ve seen from Reform, in that it dealt with both legal migration and illegal migration’.
Mr Hollinrake later told Sky News a migrant deal with Afghanistan would be ‘very expensive’ and have ‘very significant’ human rights consequences.
He added that the previous Tory government’s proposal of deporting people to Rwanda had been ‘a better way of doing that’.
On Tuesday, Mr Yusuf said £2billion of the total £10billion cost of Reform’s plans to tackle the small boats crisis would be offered to other countries in exchange for them signing migrant return deals.
The former Reform chairman, who remains one of the party’s most senior figures, said £2billion represented a sizeable sum for some capitals.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It’s not a drop in the ocean for Afghanistan. It’s certainly not a drop in the ocean for Eritrea.
‘These are the two countries that are top of the list for boat crossings. That is a very significant amount of money.’
Pressed on Reform’s plans to hand taxpayers’ cash to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, Mr Yusuf added: ‘This country already gives £151million a year to Afghanistan in the form of foreign aid.
‘I think it’s quite reasonable. Again, the British people have had quite enough of their goodwill being taken advantage of.
‘The notion that Afghans topped the list in terms of foreign nationals crossing the Channel illegally, the majority of them fighting age males into this country, while this country gives £151million of aid to Afghanistan. We don’t think that’s fair.’
Mr Yusuf said a Reform government would ‘engage’ with regimes in Iran and Afghanistan, when asked how they would sign returns agreements with such countries.
The Government has previously said that UK foreign aid to Afghanistan is subject to strict monitoring and that none is provided to or through the Taliban.
It is instead provided directly to UK partners such as the UN and the Red Cross.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: ‘Reform’s proposals essentially add up to a Taliban tax: sending billions to an oppressive regime that British soldiers fought and died to defeat.
‘Not a penny of taxpayers’ money should go to a group so closely linked to terrorist organisations proscribed by the UK.’
