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British authorities have started detaining asylum seekers as part of a new scheme to deport them to Rwanda, the government said, with the first flights expected to take off as early as July.
“Our dedicated enforcement teams are working at pace to swiftly detain those who have no right to be here so we can get flights off the ground,” said Home Secretary James Cleverly yesterday.
Confirmation of the round-ups came a week after legislators passed a contentious law declaring Rwanda to be a safe third country, bypassing an earlier UK Supreme Court ruling that had declared the scheme unlawful on human rights grounds.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who has promised to stop migrants and asylum seekers arriving on small boats from mainland Europe, had declared last week that the government would begin detaining people promptly before deportation flights start within “10 to 12 weeks”.
Calling it “another major milestone” in the Rwanda plan, the UK’s Home Office released photographs and a video of immigration enforcement officers detaining several people with handcuffs at different residences.
“This government has lost it’s last ounce of humanity,” the charity, Freedom from Torture, posted on social media on Wednesday. A senior minister revealed on Tuesday that the government expects to deport 5 700 people this year, after it was confirmed that Rwanda had “in principle” agreed to accept that number. — Al Jazeera.
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