Rwanda flights could take off by summer
DEPORTATION flights to Rwanda could start as soon as this summer, Rishi Sunak has said, as he maintained that thousands of migrants could be removed to the central African state under the scheme.
The Prime Minister indicated he was “confident” the Government would fend off legal challenges that have prevented flights taking off since the first was blocked by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in June.
The case is before the Court of Appeal, after the High Court backed the legality of the flights, under which migrants are sent on a one-way ticket to claim asylum in the African state.
Asked how quickly the flights could get off the ground, Mr Sunak said ministers will “look to start operationalising” the Rwanda partnership once UK legal proceedings are complete.
He said this “could be” as soon as the summer, as the Government was “confident” in its case. Speaking to journalists in Dover yesterday, he said: “The Court of Appeal is due to hear the case towards the end of April and we’d get a decision relatively soon after that.
“So as soon as we’ve finished the UK legal proceedings, then we would look to start operationalising the Rwanda partnership.”
He added: “We continue to remain confident in our case – as we have been successful at the High Court, we would expect to be successful at the Court of Appeal.
“There’s a question then about the Supreme Court, whether it hears it, but as soon as the legal process is exhausted, we aim to operationalise that partnership.”
Asked whether the number sent to the central African state could be in the thousands, he said: “Yeah. I mean, it’s an uncapped scheme.”
It came as Rwanda pledged to take as many migrants as Britain requires, and its Government yesterday rejected claims that the numbers would be restricted to 200.
Yolande Makolo, the Rwandan government’s official spokesman, said: “We have an existing accommodation facility – Hope Hostel – available to host 200 migrants immediately. As soon as flights begin, we will be able to scale up rapidly to meet whatever the requirements are: we have a number of arrangements with hotels and other facilities which we can operationalise at very short notice.
“The nature of this partnership is that those who wish to remain in Rwanda will be provided with the opportunity to build a new life here: all migrants will be integrated into communities after around three months – so we are not necessarily limited by temporary accommodation spaces.
“Both governments are continuing to work closely together to ensure the success of this partnership.”
In December Mr Sunak announced a deal to fast track the return of migrants from Albania to the Balkan country to cut the backlog of more than 160,000 asylum claims by the end of 2023.