The Government has been criticised for failing to consider the worsening climate crisis in Rwanda as it seeks to deport some asylum seekers there.

A freedom of information request to the Home Office by Christian Aid revealed the department did not conduct a climate risk assessment into the impact on the lives of people being sent to the African country.

But a report by the aid agency says analysis from the Foreign Office highlights the growing threat of climate change in Rwanda, including urban flooding and landslides, food and water insecurity and the risk of disease and higher temperatures.

It says other reports, including from the World Bank, also show the worsening risk of climate change to the country, with more heavy rain bringing increased flooding, as well as worsening aridity and drought – which have already resulted in famine, displacement, conflicts and wildlife losses.

Climate change is already forcing people worldwide to migrate to avoid its impacts, and within a few decades Rwanda could face such inhospitable conditions that people have to leave, making it an unsuitable place to be sending refugees trying to build new lives, the report said.

It comes as judgments are due in High Court challenges over the controversial policy, which the Government says is needed to deter illegal immigration – while saying Rwanda is a safe and secure country for people to be sent to.

In response to the charity’s request, a Home Office spokesman told Christian Aid: “We have carried out a thorough search and we have established that the Home Office does not hold the information which you have requested relating to a specific risk assessment on the impact of climate change for relocated individuals transferred to Rwanda.”

Former archbishop of York John Sentamu described the Government’s decision to deport refugees seeking asylum to Rwanda as a “shameful moral failure”.

In a foreword to the report, he said the country is going to be increasingly inhospitable place in the coming decades due to climate change.

“The fact that the Home Office hasn’t even done a risk assessment on the climate dangers posed to refugees it plans to deport there reveals its lack of care and concern for their wellbeing,” he said.

Mohmed Adow, director of African climate and energy think tank, Power Shift Africa, said the policy is “shameful” and it is “especially worrying to learn that the Home Office didn’t even consider the impact of climate change when formulating one of their major flagship policies”.

“Here in Africa we are on the front line of a climate crisis. We are experiencing terrible droughts, devastating storms and ever hotter temperatures bring pests and disease which affect our lives and livelihoods,” he said.

“If the UK wants to claim to understand climate change, let alone be a leader on it, it needs to have more understanding of its impact across the world.”

The report from Christian Aid says recent evidence suggests hotter-than-normal temperatures across 103 countries, including many in Africa, have increased asylum applications to the EU, with that set to rise with further global warming.

It calls for an end to the Rwanda resettlement scheme and for the Government to find a “much safer and more humane approach” to dealing with asylum seekers in the UK.

More financial support is needed for vulnerable countries, it argues, and urges the UK to back a specific fund to compensate them for the permanent loss and damage caused by climate change which they have done the least to cause.

African countries need to see polluters such as the UK reduce their emissions and harness the benefits of renewable energy, rather than exploring for new fossil fuels in the North Sea, Christian Aid added.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK government already works extensively with the government of Rwanda to help mitigate the impacts of climate change and to develop new green solutions for the future.”