Priti Patel, the home secretary, pushed ahead with the Rwanda policy despite being warned that migrants faced a significant risk of modern slavery.
Government officials warned that in 2018 the country had double the global average rate of victims at 11.56 per 1,000 of its population. This is even higher than the average rate in sub-Saharan Africa, which has 10.25 victims of modern slavery per 1,000 people.
UK government officials also flagged a 2021 report by the US state department that found there had been an “increase in domestic trafficking” in Rwanda during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report said that the risk of exploitation by human traffickers was particularly acute in Kigali, the capital, where migrants sent from the UK will be accommodated if the
