British government watchdog says UK’s Rwanda deportation plan could cost nearly 500 million pounds

By BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A new report says the British government’s contentious plan to send some asylum-seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda could cost nearly half a billion British pounds, plus hundreds of thousands more for each deported person. The report released on Friday by the National Audit Office comes after parliamentary committees complained of being in the dark about the costs of the plan. The new figures open the plan to wider scrutiny from critics. Not a single person has been sent to Rwanda under the plan, which has been blocked by the courts, but the British government has already paid enormous sums to the government in Kigali.