The Home Office has been widely condemned after releasing a disturbing video of the police detaining the first group of migrants set to be deported to Rwanda.
The two-minute clip shows police officers quietly picking people up from their homes, putting them in handcuffs and locking them in the back of their vans.
Asylum seekers are expected to be deported to Rwanda within nine to 11 weeks.
The video – and accompanying press release – is meant to promote the government acting on its plan to “stop the small boats”.
It was released the day before the local elections and a week after the controversial deportation bill passed through parliament.
It was written off by opposition parties as “flashy PR”, and a bid to win over last-minute votes before the electorate head to the ballot box on Thursday.
A Labour source said: “Is there any more blatant sign that Robert Jenrick was right about this all being symbolic before an election than this mad flurry of stories the day before polling day.
“The core substance though hasn’t changed. This is a tiny scheme at an extortionate cost and the criminal gangs will see through this con.”
The government also announced the first person was flown to Rwanda earlier this week – although they actually were paid £3,000 to leave, using a separate scheme to the compulsory deportation programme.
Discussing the video, Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, said: “The government’s move to detain people is causing fear, distress and great anxiety amongst men, women and children who have fled war and persecution to reach safety in the UK.
“Children have been sending messages to our staff terrified that their age disputed status will put them at risk of removal to Rwanda.”
Solomon said the government is “laying the foundations for the next asylum crisis”, adding: “Instead of headline-grabbing schemes that will waste time and resources and are unleashing even more human misery, we need a fair and controlled asylum system.”
A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said: “The Rwanda plan is deeply immoral and coming at eye watering cost to the taxpayer, no amount of flashy PR will change that.
“This propaganda push is a new low even for this government.
“Time and time again we have seen this immoral and expensive policy fail, a scrambled PR push won’t change that.”
Former Tory adviser Sam Freedman also weighed in on X, writing: “This is what I was saying was sick.... using human beings as election props.”
He was not the only one to condemn the clip on social media, either.