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The government is ready to ‘get cracking straight away’ with sending Channel migrants to Rwanda as soon as it wins the legal battle over the plan, a senior minister said today.
Oliver Dowden insisted the plan to send thousands of boat arrivals to Africa was legal and would be cleared by the Court of Appeal.
He spoke out after Home Secretary Suella Braverman suggested that the first flights to Kigali could take off in the summer if the court upholds the Rwanda programme’s legality in the coming weeks.
Hearings are due to take place in April with a ruling due to follow shortly afterwards.
Mr Dowden, the Cabinet Office Minister, told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: ‘The reason why we haven’t been able to proceed with Rwanda is because it’s currently before the courts. We actually succeeded at the High Court stage, it’s before the Court of Appeal.
‘But as soon as that process is through – and I’m confident our policy is lawful – we will get cracking straight away with the Rwanda policy and use that as a tool in our armoury.’
Asked about the prospect of children being covered by the new immigration regime, Mr Dowden said: ‘I don’t relish any of this and I really wish we didn’t have to do it, and the Government isn’t running to do this. The Government is doing this because this is a major problem.’
Oliver Dowden insisted the plan to send thousands of boat arrivals to Africa was legal and would be cleared by the Court of Appeal.
The Home Secretary pledged to act quickly to remove migrants who arrive in Britain illegally if the Court of Appeal upholds the Rwanda programme’s legality in the coming weeks
Touring new accommodation being built for migrants outside the Rwandan capital Kigali, Ms Braverman said yesterday: ‘There is every possibility that we can move quickly if we get a good line of judgment in our favour.’
Her defiant stance comes in the wake of the row over Gary Lineker likening the Government’s language over the small boats crisis in the Channel to that of 1930s Germany.
Yesterday the Match Of The Day presenter returned to BBC screens after winning a power battle with the Corporation.
Touring new accommodation being built for migrants outside the Rwandan capital Kigali, Ms Braverman said yesterday: ‘There is every possibility that we can move quickly if we get a good line of judgment in our favour.’
It raises the prospect of removals flights beginning by the summer – even if the Home Office is facing another appeal in the Supreme Court. Officials had previously indicated that all domestic legal appeals would have to be concluded before flights could take off.
The scheme, which was announced last April, is regarded within No 10 as key to shoring up the Tories’ ‘Red Wall’ seats, previously held by Labour, at the next Election.
It allows migrants to be handed a one-way ticket to the East African nation and has been supplemented with the Illegal Migration Bill, published earlier this month, which circumvents human rights provisions giving the migrants the right to claim asylum.
The original terms of the deal covered only those who claimed asylum. But under a new agreement signed by Ms Braverman yesterday, anyone who arrives illegally in the UK will face removal to Rwanda whether they claim asylum or not.
Migrants who lodge ‘modern slavery’ claims will now be covered by the scheme.
‘There will be no way out,’ a Government source said. ‘We are sealing off all the loopholes.’ They added that the country was ‘chomping at the bit’ and ‘on tenterhooks’ to get going with the scheme.
Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government, said: ‘We are ready to absorb the thousands that are going to come from the UK during this partnership.’
An inaugural flight to Kigali was blocked at the 11th hour by Strasbourg judges last summer, but the UK High Court ruled the policy was lawful in December.
Yesterday the Match Of The Day presenter returned to BBC screens after winning a power battle with the Corporation
The Home Secretary said she was awaiting the outcome of a further challenge in the Court of Appeal, but added: ‘Flights could take off – we’re working to make this happen as soon as possible’.
The Home Secretary praised the ‘great quality’ two- and three-bedroom homes and said they showed Rwanda was ‘clearly ready’ to fulfil its part of the deal
The Home Secretary said she was awaiting the outcome of a further challenge in the Court of Appeal, but added: ‘Flights could take off – we’re working to make this happen as soon as possible.
‘What we’ve seen is our legal process gets gummed up with spurious claims of modern slavery, delaying tactics or asylum claims, and this Bill aims to fix all of that so that the power to remove will be effected much more quickly.’
The Rwandan government has already trained its immigration officers to handle asylum claims by migrants removed from the UK, it is understood.
Ms Braverman denied the deal made Britain less likely to challenge Rwanda on diplomatic matters such as tensions with the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. ‘We have a close and frank relationship and if there are concerns ministers will raise them in private,’ she said.
During her visit, Ms Braverman visited new ‘eco’ homes boasting solar panels and fibre optic broadband which are set to be occupied by migrants sent to Rwanda.
The development outside Kigali is being part-funded by British taxpayers under the deal.
The Home Secretary praised the ‘great quality’ two- and three-bedroom homes and said they showed Rwanda was ‘clearly ready’ to fulfil its part of the deal.
Developers behind the Riverside Estates project are ‘in discussions’ with the Rwandan government to provide some of the 2,500 homes. An undisclosed proportion of the Home Office’s £120 million deal went towards the Rwandan government’s initial costs.
Suella Braverman today toured buildings in Rwanda where Channel boat migrants may be held under her controversial deportation scheme
Home Secretary, Suella Braverman meets graduate builders in Kigali, Rwanda, who will be helping to construct houses that could house deported migrants from the UK
Other homes on the 70-acre estate are available for Rwandans to buy, with prices starting at £14,000 for a two-bedroom house
In one of the homes, seated on a beige velvet sofa with floral pink scatter cushions, Ms Braverman said: ‘These houses are really beautiful, great quality, really welcoming and I like your interior designer. I need some advice for myself.’
In one of the homes, seated on a beige velvet sofa with floral pink scatter cushions, Ms Braverman said: ‘These houses are really beautiful, great quality, really welcoming and I like your interior designer. I need some advice for myself.’
Other homes on the 70-acre estate are available for Rwandans to buy, with prices starting at £14,000 for a two-bedroom house.
Each property – which is constructed from scratch in two weeks by a team of ten builders – boasts a front and back garden, many with views of the rolling landscape, as well as off-street parking.
The scheme will eventually house 15,000 people.
