UK could send first asylum seekers to Rwanda’within weeks’
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The first asylum seekers could be flown to Rwanda from the UK within weeks, the government has said.
It follows the announcement of a pilot that will see people sent to the east African country to claim asylum there.
That scheme will initially focus on single men crossing the Channel in boats or lorries from France.
The prime minister said it would “save countless lives” and break the business model of traffickers, but campaigners have called the plan “inhumane”.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Andrew Griffith MP – director of the No 10 policy unit – said the scheme would not require new legislation and could be implemented under “existing conventions”.
“Therefore this should be possible to be implemented and operationalised in weeks or a small number of months,” he said. “So we’re ready to go in that sense.”
He added that, if the flow of illegal migration can be stopped, it would leave “lots of capacity for the very generous safe and legal routes” into the UK.
The Rwanda scheme is part of a broader strategy to reduce the number of people entering the UK via Channel crossings in small boats.
The Royal Navy has taken operational command of the Channel from UK Border Force, in an effort to detect every boat headed to the UK.
Last year, 28,526 people made the crossing, up from 8,404 in 2020.
Photo – British Border Force officers unload a vessel of migrants found off the coast of Dover Port in Dover, Britain. Migrants from Syria and other countries are continuing to arrive along the coast of the UK in their quest for asylum. EPA-EFE/ANDY RAIN
