The first Rwanda flight would have taken off on June 26. Instead on July 22 Yvette Cooper quietly brought in an 'effective amnesty' for up to 88,000. No wonder the asylum seekers we met are rejoicing, writes DAVID BARRETT

Three uniformed officers in stab vests bearing the title Immigration Enforcement drove their van down a quiet ­residential street and drew up outside a pebble-dashed terraced house.

A camera crew followed them as they went inside and arrested a young man, put him in handcuffs and led him outside to be locked in the cage in the back of their ­vehicle. Next stop was an equally undistinguished property – this one with the gate hanging off – where another man was detained and locked in the back of the van.

These were just two of a ‘series of nationwide operations’ conducted across the country in the early hours of April 29 as the then-Conservative government deployed 800 enforcement officers to round up scores of asylum seekers set to be flown to Rwanda.

The Home Office had identified an initial cohort of 5,700 people who could be sent to the African country and the effort to round them up – Operation Vector – was designed to last 11 weeks. But exactly three weeks after the…