UK – The “inhumane” treatment of migrants rounded up in a “futile” operation for the now scrapped Rwanda scheme, has been laid bare in testimonies from Home Office staff that reveal force was used against distressed detainees.

Internal documents disclosed to the Observer and Liberty Investigates under the Freedom of Information Act also reveal four recorded instances of migrants attempting to harm themselves after being apprehended. Dozens of migrants facing removal to Rwanda under the previous Conservative government were detained as part of a surprise initiative, Operation Vector, launched days before the 2 May local elections in England and Wales in what critics say was an “act of political theatre”.

The arrests continued until at least a week before Rishi Sunak announced the snap general election on 22 May. He said the next day that no flights would take off until after the election on 4 July. The Labour government subsequently scrapped the scheme. The Operation Vector reports record how Home Office immigration enforcement officers used force 60 times between 30 April and 15 May, giving a rare glimpse into the dawn raids or detention of migrants as they showed up for routine reporting centre appointments.

The documents also include testimonies from security staff at the Harmondsworth immigration removal centre in west London that detail two cases of force being used on detainees who remained locked up weeks after the Rwanda scheme was postponed by Sunak. The new government could be hit by costly compensation claims, with the charity Bail for Immigration Detainees preparing to mount legal action, arguing the detention of about 150 migrants the government wanted to send to Rwanda was unlawful, against Home Office policy, as it could not imminently remove them, and “political theatre”. Home Office accounts show the department paid out £56.8m in compensation for more than 2,700 wrongful detentions in the five years before the Rwanda raids. (The Guardian)