The male migrant was escorted handcuffed from the detached house after the officers entered it. One officer carried a handheld battering ram ready to break down doors.
Those detained are among 5,700 migrants whose applications for asylum have been denied after arriving in the UK illegally between January 2022 and June 2023. They were previously notified of their removal to Rwanda.
Officials are targeting 2,145 whom they believe give them the best prospect of removal and have been subject to face-to-face reporting as part of the immigration bail conditions. The remaining 3,557 migrants are subject to reporting conditions including by email or phone.
They will be detained at seven immigration removal centres, where detention capacity has been expanded to 2,200 places, although they will also be required to hold foreign criminals and other immigration offenders already facing deportation.
‘A complex piece of work’
James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, said: “Our dedicated enforcement teams are working at pace to swiftly detain those who have no right to be here so we can get flights off the ground.
“This is a complex piece of work, but we remain absolutely committed to operationalising the policy, to stop the boats and break the business model of people smuggling gangs.”
Eddy Montgomery, the Home Office director of enforcement, said it was “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”.
The migrants can be detained for the entire nine to 11 weeks before their scheduled flights provided there is a realistic prospect of removal from the UK in a “reasonable” timescale.
They will be able to seek bail but lawyers suggested Mr Cleverly would have to provide a removal date at that point to justify their detention and the “reasonable” timescale.
A key change to guidance issued to officials on Tuesday makes clear it is now for the Home Secretary to determine what a “reasonable” timescale is and also makes it easier to detain individuals who may be deemed vulnerable.
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