First 100 migrants to be sent off to Rwanda

Notices going out this week

The first 100 migrants to be deported to Rwanda will receive formal notices of removal this week.

While ministers hope the first flight to east Africa will take off next month, they are braced for legal challenges from human rights lawyers.

About 100 migrants deemed to have arrived in the UK illegally are reported have received the first set of paperwork – a notification of intent – to send them on the 6,000mile journey. It is understood that anyone sent a removal notice, the second stage of the deportation process, can take their claim through the courts. No flights are expected to leave before June 6.

however, No10 is said to want to have deported the first migrants before the Commonwealth heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda on June 20. A home Office source said yesterday that while the notices were still to be confirmed, it was more than likely that they would be sent this week.

Under a £120 million deal unveiled last month, Rwanda will process asylum claims and ‘settle or remove’ them in line with Rwandan and international law.

Boris Johnson said tens of thousands of migrants could be flown to east Africa under the deal in the years ahead, however ministers later said it was more likely to be in the hundreds.

The home Office reportedly expects about 300 to be deported there each year. Some will be put up at the three-star Rouge By Desir hotel in the Rwandan capital Kigali, which has a swimming pool, tennis court, gym and access to a golf course.

Others are expected to be housed at the hallmark Residence, also in Kigali, which has three and fourbed bungalows.

Those notified of the home Office’s intention to remove them to Rwanda have seven days to submit a legal challenge. It is understood at least 20 appeals have been lodged, although only two cases have been made public.

The first flights have already been delayed by a legal appeal from a coalition of charities and a trade union representing immigration officials.

A home Office spokesman said yesterday: ‘We are fully committed to working with Rwanda to get the arrangement operational as soon as possible.’

home Secretary Priti Patel and Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta signed the migration partnership deal last month.

According to the home Office, they reinforced their ‘commitment to working in collaboration with UN agencies’ on the deportation plan and ‘emphasised’ that claims will be processed in accordance with the UN Refugee Convention.

More than 9,000 migrants have reached the UK after travelling from France in small boats since the start of this year, according to analysis of government data.

‘20 appeals have been lodged’