A document, which was quietly released by the UK government on Monday and reported on by The Times, stated that out of 5,700 migrants set to be deported, only 2,145 of them "continue to report to the Home Office and can be located for detention."
"We may expect future … cases to attract significant attention from MPs, and responders may be overwhelmed by cases, causing a delay or removal to be cancelled pending a response," it stated.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins stated to Sky News that the government is "used to" losing contact with migrants and that police will be mobilized to "find and remove" them in the coming weeks.
“I know that there are reports today that some of the cohorts [of migrants] have stopped reporting. But this, I'm afraid, the Home Office is used to this operationally, law enforcement officers are used to this,” she said.
"So the expectation is that we remove that group of people, as well as others, by the end of the year, in fact the Prime Minister has said he wants the first flights to take off within 10-12 weeks so the urgency of this is paramount.
"We want the message to go out loud and clear that if somebody doesn’t report as they should do, they shouldn’t think that they will get away with it. They will be found.
“Law enforcement have a variety of measures to find people, they will be found and they will be removed. We want to deal with this. We don’t pretend it’s easy but we believe that Rwanda is one of the many tools we have at our disposal.”
The Home said in response: “As the prime minister has made clear, we will get flights off the ground to Rwanda in the next ten to twelve weeks. In preparation, we have identified the initial cohort to be removed to Rwanda and have hundreds of dedicated caseworkers ready to process any appeals. It would be inappropriate to comment further on operational activity.”As of Wednesday, its website stated that operational teams have already begun detaining migrants who were unaccounted for and will continue to carry out arrests and deportations nationwide in the coming weeks, although detailed numbers on how many have been found so far were not provided.
Home Office Director of Enforcement Eddy Montgomery stated: "Our specialist operational teams are highly trained and fully equipped to carry out the necessary enforcement activity at pace and in the safest way possible.
"It is vital that operational detail is kept to a minimum, to protect colleagues involved and those being detained, as well as ensuring we can deliver this large-scale operation as quickly as possible."
Although the deportations were set to be completed by Spring, the government has not reported they will happen within 9 to 11 weeks.
As part of the Safety of Rwanda Act, the British government will shell out hundreds of millions of taxpayer's dollars to Rwanda to take in thousands of migrants who illegally crossed the English Channel from France to the UK with smugglers.
Over 7,500 made the dangerous trek by sea so far this year. Some 46,000 have illegally entered Britain since 2018.
