UK to relocate illegal migrants to Rwanda
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new immigration strategy on Thursday, which will see many migrants entering the UK illegally flown out to the African nation of Rwanda.
Johnson said that as part of efforts to make asylum seeking routes to the UK safe and legal, the Royal Navy will take over operational command from the Border Force in the English Channel, which has over the years seen increased numbers of small boats smuggling migrants illegally into the UK.
Under a new Migration and Economic Development Partnership, anyone caught entering the UK illegally, as well as those who have already entered the country illegally from January 1 this year, could be relocated to Rwanda.
"The deal we have done is uncapped and Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead," Johnson said in a speech at an airport in Kent, south-east England.
"This innovative approach,
The British government is also considering to send some asylum-seekers, a move that opposition politicians condemned as unworkable and inhumane.
driven our shared humanitarian impulse and made possible by Brexit freedoms,
will provide safe and legal routes for asylum, while disrupting the business model of the gangs, because it means that economic migrants taking advantage of the asylum system will not get to stay in the UK, while those in genuine need will be properly protected, including with access to legal services on arrival in Rwanda, and given the opportunity to build a new life in that dynamic country, supported by the funding we are providing," he said.