The UK government wants to send the first batch of illegal immigrants arriving under a scheme designed to deter human smuggling to Rwanda in a matter of weeks, a Downing Street official has said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on April 14 that people who enter the UK illegally may end up being relocated to the African country of Rwanda.
Johnson said the agreement is “uncapped” and Rwanda will have the “capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead,” including those who have arrived illegally since the start of the year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivers a speech at Lydd Airport in Dover, England, on April 14, 2022. (Matt Dunham – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
He said he hopes the threat of relocation to Rwanda will help end “the most tragic of all forms of illegal migration,” namely “the barbaric trade in human misery conducted by the people smugglers” in the English Channel.
…