UK’s Rwanda asylum scheme has cost 700 million pounds, says minister

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s now-scrapped plan to deport migrants who arrive illegally on British shores to Rwanda has cost taxpayers 700 million pounds ($904 million), new interior minister Yvette Cooper said on Monday.

“Two and a half years after the previous government launched (the Rwanda plan), I can report it has already cost the British taxpayer 700 million pounds,” she told parliament.

($1 = 0.7745 pounds)

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; editing by William James)