UK Government Sets Date of First Deportation Flight to Rwanda

British Home Secretary Priti Patel and Rwandan minister for foreign affairs and international co-operation, Vincent Biruta, signed a "world-first" migration and economic development partnership in the East African nation's capital city Kigali, on April 14, 2022. (Flora Thompson/PA)

British Home Secretary Priti Patel said she will “not be deterred” in her plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda as the Home Office announced the date—June 14—for the first flight.

In April Patel unveiled plans to transfer dozens of people whose applications for asylum are awaiting processing to the African country. The policy was criticised by a the opposition Labour party, by a number of charities representing asylum-seekers and even by some Conservative MPs.

Patel has pushed on with the policy, which she has said is the best way to deal with large numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the English channel.

The Home Office announced on Wednesday said it has begun the process of notifying the immigrants they will be transferred to Rwanda, where they will be held in a three-star hotel.

Referring to legal challenges, and possible airport protests, Patel said she was sure “attempts will now be made to frustrate the process and delay removals".

Earlier this month the Home Office said it had issued “notices of intent” to 50 individuals, who were told they were “in scope for relocation” to Rwanda, which has been ruled by President Paul Kagame ever since 1994 when his RPF rebels took power after the infamous genocide.

Extremists from the majority Hutu tribe massacred almost a million people from the Tutsi minority after a plane carrying Rwanda’s President, Juvenal Habyarimana, was shot down allegedly by the Tutsi-dominated RPF.

Kagame has restored peace and prosperity to Rwanda but critics, who include Amnesty International, have accused his government of human rights abuses.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said on Tuesday: “The Rwanda scheme isn’t about deterring the criminal gangs or small boat crossings, it’s about chasing headlines regardless of reality. This is a completely unworkable, extortionately expensive, and deeply un-British policy. There is no proper process for identifying people who have been trafficked or tortured.”

The Home Office said some of those being transferred to Rwanda had taken “dangerous, unnecessary, and illegal journeys” to reach Britain and some are believed to be from African countries like Eritrea and Somalia.

A Home Office blog explains: “Those whose claims for protection are rejected will either be offered the chance to stay in Rwanda or return to their home country—they will not return to the UK once their claims have been decided by Rwanda.”

Boris Johnson recently said that “activist lawyers” undermine the handling of illegal immigration and process of handling asylum seekers.

A number of organisations, including Detention Action and Freedom from Torture, have threatened to take the government to court over the Rwanda policy.

In a pre-action letter to the department setting out the grounds for the legal challenge, Freedom from Torture said it was calling into question assertions by ministers and officials that Rwanda is generally a safe country and argued the policy was “unlawful on the basis of apparent pre-determination or bias”.

The charity has also claimed removing asylum seekers to Rwanda is beyond Home Secretary Priti Patel’s legal authority as it “is contrary to the Refugee Convention to enforce such removals where… Rwanda will not uphold the full set of obligations owed under the Convention to those transferred”.

PA Media contributed to this report.