The Government handed a contract worth more than £200 million to a charity that has railed against its flagship Rwanda scheme, the Telegraph can disclose.
Migrant Help, which supports asylum seekers and refugees, has described the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their applications processed as “cruel and immoral”.
The charity has also identified other pieces of legislation – the Illegal Migration Act 2023 and the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 – as “key risks” in its annual report published in March 2023.
Now, the Telegraph can reveal that in September 2019, the Home Office gave the charity a 10-year contract worth £235 million to provide refugees with advice on asylum claims and how to complete applications.
After the contract was awarded, the charity saw its income quadruple from £11 million to £45.7 million in the year to March 2023 as asylum applications grew.
Between 2022 and 2023, more than 65 per cent (£30 million) of this annual income came from the Home Office contract, up from £24 million the year before.
In November 2023, Caroline O’Connor, the CEO of Migrant Help, said the charity “appreciated” the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Rwanda plan because it “would have directly affected a significant proportion of our clients”.
The statement posted on the charity’s website said: “Everyone deserves to be safe, protected and equal, and we will continue to support and champion displaced people who come to our country seeking safety.”
In April 2022, the charity was a signatory to an open letter, alongside other groups including Stonewall and Greenpeace, that said of the Rwanda policy: “We demand that you scrap this plan […] and instead create humane and effective solutions for the protection of refugees.
‘Shamefully cruel’
“This is a shamefully cruel way to treat people who have come to the UK to seek protection, fleeing persecution or conflict.
“Many people come from countries that are connected to the UK because of war, invasion or colonisation. To send people seeking asylum to Rwanda is cruel and immoral, and is a breach of the Refugee Convention.”
Sir John Hayes MP, a former minister and the chairman of the Conservatives’ Common Sense Group, said the charity should not receive taxpayer money.
“I will be writing to the Home Secretary asking for the funding to stop while an investigation into this takes place,” he said.
He added that it was “hard to see how the Government can continue to fund them whilst they are campaigning against the end the Government seeks to bring about”.
The charity’s main service is a 24/7 helpline giving migrants advice on how to claim asylum as well as getting accommodation and finding welfare or legal services.
In the year ending March 2023, it supported more than 96,000 people who were seeking asylum.
It also runs public campaigns to “demonstrate the value” migrants bring to the UK, installing 3D artworks that were displayed on London’s South Bank during Refugee Week in summer 2022.
‘High-quality service’
A spokesman for Migrant Help said: “As a charity that has worked with displaced people for 60 years, we have a duty to make our views clear on proposed government policy, before it is implemented.
“Our wealth of knowledge and experience makes us well placed to advise policymakers to help create systems and processes that protect some of the most vulnerable members of our society.
“This is not incompatible with the conditions of our Home Office contract.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “All contracts are awarded following due-diligence checks, including best value for money for the taxpayer.
“We work closely with all our contractors to ensure contractual requirements are met and a high-quality service is delivered.”
