The first scheduled flight by the British government to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda will take off later today despite numerous protests by human rights groups and campaigners to halt the first flight.
“There will be people on this flight and if they’re not on this flight, they will be on the next flight because we are determined to break the model of the appalling people traffickers,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Sky News.
“But the really important thing is that we establish the principle,” he added.
The initiation for deportation was recently introduced by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government in an attempt to cut the flow of migrants risking their lives in the English Channel crossings in dinghies or makeshift boats, while expecting to destroy the people-smuggling networks.
The agreement with Rwandan authorities is for the British government to send anyone who enters the United Kingdom illegally to Rwanda in which the UK will pay up to GBP120 million for asylum seekers to be integrated into Rwandan communities.
Amid legal challenges from various parties, seven individuals from previously-listed 37 people will be on this flight to Rwanda on Tuesday.
According to charity Care4Calais, people on the list are those who fled from Afghanistan and Syria as well as Iran and Iraq.
In 2021, more than 28,000 migrants entered the UK across the Channel in which several dozens had perished in the process.
