The Conservative government's plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was the "most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen", Britain's Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said.
Only four people were sent to the east African country before the Labour Party scrapped the relocation programme - and they all went voluntarily.
The UK spent £700 million (€830m) on the controversial scheme, Ms Cooper revealed.
Rishi Sunak - whose Tory government was ousted last month - had planned to spend over £10 billion (almost €12bn) on it, she added.
An electoral drubbing denied them the opportunity.
The costs included "£290m (€344m) payments to Rwanda, chartering flights that never took off, detaining hundreds of people and then releasing them, and paying for more than a 1,000 civil servants to work on the scheme," Ms Cooper told parliament.
Conservative home affairs spokesman James Cleverly, who touted the plan when he was home secretary, claimed that Ms Cooper was citing "made up numbers".
He accused the Labour government of "discourtesy" towards the Rwandan government.
Mr Sunak had claimed that the scheme would stop tens of thousands of migrants from risking their lives every year crossing the English Channel in small boats from France.
The slogan "stop the boats" was at the heart of his failed bid to win the 4 July election.
But prime minister Keir Starmer declared the scheme to be "dead and buried" on his first full day in office.
Rwanda then revealed that it was under no obligation to return any of the money it had received.
The size of Munster, population 13 million
The new Labour government has pledged to "smash the gangs" of people smugglers facilitating the crossings with a new border security command possessing enhanced "counter-terror powers".
Ms Cooper has also promised to speed up the removal of failed asylum seekers to reduce the backlog in cases that has driven up the cost of accommodation provided by the government.
Almost 16,000 migrants have been detected in small boats this year, including some 1,500 in the past week, which is a record for 2024.
Rwanda is roughly the size of Munster and has a population of 13 million.
President Paul Kagame is 66 and has held the office since 2000.
He was re-elected last week with 99.18 percent of the vote for another five year term.
His regime has been accused of ruling through fear, but praised for keeping the economy stable.
In November last year, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the deportation programme was illegal under international law as Rwanda could not be considered safe for asylum seekers.
Additional reporting PA
