Home Office department processing Rwanda deportations told to cut jobs

Exclusive: Illegal Migration Operations Command freezes recruitment and draws up redundancy plans, leaked documents show

The head of the Home Office section that detains and processes asylum seekers for deportation to Rwanda has halted recruitment and is drawing up plans for staff cuts after demands from Jeremy Hunt, leaked documents show.

Stuart Skeates, the director general for strategic operations at Illegal Migration Operations Command (IMOC), wrote to colleagues on Tuesday to say his department had been told to cut the numbers of staff to “pre-pandemic levels”, in line with the chancellor’s plans.