One of seven asylum seekers taken off Tuesday’s cancelled Rwanda flight says he would not have come to the UK if he had known about the deportation policy.
But the man, who can only be identified as KN, told the BBC he had been in hiding and did not know about the plan.
The Iraqi Kurd, who said he fought alongside the British in the Iraq war, also alleged he had been mistreated on the way to the plane.
The Home Office said staff were trained in the appropriate use of force.
The Rwanda asylum plan, announced by the government in April, intends to take some asylum seekers who cross the Channel to the UK on a one-way ticket to Rwanda to claim asylum there instead.
The government has said the scheme will discourage others from crossing the Channel.
KN said he had “absolutely no idea” that anyone entering the UK illegally to claim asylum could be deported to Rwanda under the UK government’s new policy.
“If I had known about this whole plan I would have never decided to come to the UK,” he told Radio 4’s The World Tonight.
“The thing is that during the past six months, because I was in hiding, I was completely disconnected from the news and the outside world – so I had no idea what was going on. I was just desperately trying to get my way out for my safety.”
However, migrants in Calais waiting to make the crossing to the UK have previously told the BBC the plan to deport people to Rwanda would not deter them.
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