It seems that the never-ending British soap opera regarding the flights of migrants to Rwanda is about to end, and the deportations are set to begin.
UK’s Home Office reportedly launched a major operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK today (29) – a date that’s weeks earlier than expected – in preparation for their deportation to migrant camps in Rwanda.
Asylum seekers who turn up at immigration service offices or bail appointments will be held, and migrants will also be picked up nationwide in a surprise two-week operation.
The Guardian reported:
“Detainees will be immediately transferred to detention centers, which have already been prepared for the operation, and held until they are put on planes to Rwanda. Some will be put on the first flight due to take off this summer.
The Home Office said ratification of the prime minister’s Safety of Rwanda Act meant ‘the government is entering the final phase of operationalizing this landmark policy to tackle illegal migration and stop the boats’.
It added: ‘At some stage inevitably this will include detaining people in preparation for the first flight, which is set to take off to Rwanda in 10 to 12 weeks. It would be inappropriate to comment further on operational activity.”
PM Rishi Sunak has endlessly repeated that he was focused on ‘stopping the boats’, determined to get the Rwanda plan going.
“Speaking on Monday before the Lords and Commons sat through the night to pass the safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill, Sunak said: ‘To detain people while we prepare to remove them, we’ve increased detention spaces to 2,200.
‘To quickly process claims, we’ve got 200 trained, dedicated caseworkers ready and waiting. To deal with any legal cases quickly and decisively, the judiciary have made available 25 courtrooms and identified 150 judges who could provide over 5,000 sitting days’.”
The first deportation flight to Rwanda will take off in June, after MPs and peers last week finally passed the Safety of Rwanda Bill. It was known after ministers let documents lying around in Downing Street for the press to see which contained the date.
Meanwhile, Irish deputy PM has said people are crossing from Northern Ireland because they fear being sent to east Africa.
BBC reported:
“The UK will not take back asylum seekers who have crossed into Ireland as the Rwanda deportation scheme gets going, Rishi Sunak has said.”
The prime minister said the UK was ‘not interested’ in accepting people back from Ireland.
“‘We’re not going to accept returns from the EU via Ireland when the EU doesn’t accept returns back to France where illegal migrants are coming from’, he told ITV. ‘Of course we’re not going to do that’.”
The standoff developed after the Irish government announced that it plans emergency legislation ‘to allow it to return asylum seekers to the UK’.
“Mr Sunak has argued any increased flow of people into Ireland shows his Rwanda policy is working.
The UK government is paying £500m to fund more border patrols to prevent small boat crossings to the UK, and a new detention centre in France, following a new deal between the two countries in 2022.”
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