The border security minister said he could not confirm whether Hadush Kebatu received a cash payment to return to Ethiopia. Alex Norris said ministers “are not involved in the operational movements” such as those that happened overnight.
Asked whether Kebatu had been given money on exiting the country, as is sometimes the case when a migrant leaves voluntarily, he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I can’t tell you on the cash piece.
“I know that early in the process, he had asked for that and was denied… we do it sometimes to make a removal easier because it saves the taxpayer money, but I can’t tell in this case.”
Asked whether he did not know the answer to whether thousands of pounds had been paid, Mr Norris said: “You would know that ministers are not involved in the operational movements that happened overnight.
“Many thousands of pounds, I can’t accept that characterisation – that’s not what routinely happens.”
Kebatu’s bungled release has been hugely embarrassing for the Government, with some calling for Justice Minister David Lammy to resign over the debacle.
Footage from Sky News showed Ethiopian Hadush Kebatu being escorted onto a plane by guards at Heathrow Airport on Tuesday night.
The deportation brought to an end a sorry saga for the Home Office and Ministry of Justice which saw Kebatu wrongly freed from HMP Chelmsford on Friday morning instead of being sent to an immigration detention centre.
According to the Home Office, he has now finally arrived in Ethiopia and has no right to return to Britain. The migrant, who had been living at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, when he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman, travelled to London and was arrested on Sunday morning after a two-day manhunt.
Kebatu’s wrongful release from HMP Chelmsford has been “hugely damaging to public trust” and people deserve a “full answer” as to how the blunder happened, the local MP has said.
Liberal Democrat Chelmsford MP Marie Goldman said: “Whilst I am relieved that this saga is over and Hadush Kebatu has finally been deported, this doesn’t excuse the catastrophic failures that led to this point.
“It is utterly unacceptable that public safety was put at risk. This was a grave mistake, and my constituents now deserve a full answer as to how such a serious failure was allowed to happen.
“The findings of the independent investigation into what happened must not be brushed aside. This has been hugely damaging to public trust. We cannot afford another blunder on such a scale.”