The UK is aiming to send the first group of asylum seekers to Rwanda in the next two weeks as part of a policy which the government says is designed to break people-smuggling networks and stem the flow of migrants across the English Channel.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government announced plans in April to send some of the people who seek asylum in the UK to Rwanda in a plan that drew criticism from both within and outside Mr Johnson’s Conservative Party as well as from many charities.
The Home Office said on Tuesday that an initial group of migrants has started to receive formal letters telling them they are being sent to Rwanda to “rebuild their lives in safety”.
Asylum seekers prepare to disembark at Dover after UK officials intercepted the boat in the English Channel. Source: AAP / EPA
“The Removal Direction confirms that they will be going to Rwanda and when,” UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said in a statement. “The first flight is expected to take place next month, on the 14th of June.”
The one-way flights are intended to offer would-be refugees a new life in Rwanda and deter others from entering the UK, especially via perilous boat crossings of the Channel from France.
Ms Patel acknowledged the new policy is set to face challenges in the courts, but said in a statement: “I will not be deterred and remain fully committed to delivering what the British public expects.”
Ms Patel said the agreement was “a key part of our strategy to overhaul the broken asylum system and break the evil people smugglers business model”.
The plan to send unwanted asylum seekers to Africa comes as Mr Johnson is facing the growing threat of a confidence vote as some of his politicans say they have lost faith in his leadership over illegal parties held at his residence during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Concerns over immigration were a big factor in the 2016 Brexit vote and Mr Johnson has been under pressure to deliver on his promise to “take back control” of the UK’s borders.
Last year, more than 28,000 migrants and refugees made the crossing from mainland Europe to the UK, mostly in small boats.
The government has dismissed criticism that the policy lacks compassion, saying it is worse to encourage a system where many asylum seekers are exploited by people smugglers.
The Home Office did not say how many asylum seekers would be on the first flight to Rwanda but said it had sent out the first notices to asylum claimants who are earmarked for removal to Rwanda, under a partnership worth £120 million ($208.9 million) to Kigali.
“Once in Rwanda, there is a generous support package, including up to five years of training, accommodation, and healthcare on arrival,” it said.
But activists accuse the Rwandan government of President Paul Kagame of crushing dissent and keeping an iron grip on power, adding that the UK government altered its own guidance on his rights record to justify the plan.
The issue could stalk Mr Johnson when he attends a Commonwealth summit in Kigali a week after the first flight is due to land, unless UK courts block it first.
One group threatening legal action is Detention Action, which noted that the 14 June date had been announced in the week that the UK celebrates 70 years since Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne.
“What a way to mark the Platinum Jubilee weekend, by telling torture and slavery survivors who have travelled thousands of miles to reach safety that they will be expelled to an oppressive dictatorship,” it said.
Mr Johnson has said “tens of thousands” of people could be flown to Rwanda under the agreement. But The Times newspaper reported that Home Office modelling indicated that only 300 a year could be sent there.
