Home Office hires aircraft hangar to practise forcing migrants on Rwanda deportation flights
19 January 2024, 7:05 | Updated: 19 January 2024, 7:07
The Home Office has hired an aircraft hangar to practise forcing migrants on flights to Rwanda.
Migrants will individually be escorted from a detained facility to the plane, with security guards undergoing special training programmes to deal with different scenarios.
Staff will play out the different situations they could face while getting the migrants on board.
They include migrants turning to violence or opting to "play dead" by lying down and refusing to move, the Times revealed.
Five officers are estimated to be needed for each person.
They will also be prepared for dealing with demonstrations outside the airbase.
Read more: Nearly 6,000 migrants missing after asylum applications failed, Home Office admits
A government source told the paper: "We have a very detailed operational plan to exercise and practice all manoeuvres that are needed to remove people because the logistics are huge.
"You have to marshal people and it’s such a big logistical challenge.
"You also have to pre-empt a situation where an individual may claim they were manhandled so you need proper space to remove people from their detained facility and have a highly detailed and organised boarding pattern.
"They’ll be escorted one by one and that needs a lot of practice. Otherwise, you can end up in hot water."
The location of the aircraft hangar remains unknown but it is understood that the Home Office has signed a one-year contract to use it.
The Home Office confirmed the plans, saying it was necessary to ensure security can respond "professionally to the challenges of removing people with no right to be in the UK".
"This includes practical sessions so escorts have the skills they need to deal with different scenarios," a spokesman said.
"As we ramp up removal activity we will continue to ensure new escorts have the training facilities necessary."
It comes after Rishi Sunak said on Thursday that the government was ramping up preparations for the Rwanda flights after his bill passed in parliament.
Mr Sunak urged the Lords not to "frustrate the will of the people" by blocking the bill at its next stage.
The Safety of Rwanda Bill is expected to take between 8 and 12 weeks to be made operational after it becomes law.
Meanwhile, the Home Office confirmed on Thursday that close to 6,000 migrants have disappeared since their asylum applications were withdrawn.
Immigration ministers Michael Tomlinson and Tom Pursglove said in a letter to a parliamentary committee that 5,598 asylum seekers were still in the UK.
They told the Home Affairs committee that the Home Office was "taking steps to urgently re-establish contact with them".
Their letter read: "The Home Office has a dedicated tracing capability that works with the police, other government agencies and commercial companies to trace absconders.
"Where we obtain up to date contact details for a person from our tracing checks, we will then consider the most appropriate intervention, including whether to task an enforcement team to go and arrest them.
"Many individuals who are out of contact may voluntarily re-engage with the department or decide to leave the UK, others may come to light as a result of an encounter with the police, or during other enforcement activity such as an illegal working raid."