LONDON: The British government plans to start the process of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda on July 23, court documents showed on Monday.
However, the controversial plan is dependent on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party’s win in the upcoming election.
The policy of sending asylum seekers who arrived in Britain to Rwanda is one of Sunak’s main policies but due to legal and parliamentary hurdles, it could not be implemented.
Sunak recently said the flights would not leave Britain before an election on July 4 but he has vowed if he wins the elections they would start soon after.
According to the documents submitted to the London High Court, the lawyers of the government said the flight to Rwanda would start on 23 July 2024 and not before.
Last month more than 100 Afghan refugees gathered outside the Home Office in London to protest against the UK Government’s policy of deportations to Rwanda, expressing concerns about the safety and well-being of those facing removal.
Britain is expected to deport overall 5,700 migrants to Rwanda. Earlier, the interior ministry of the UK had said that Rwanda has “in principle” agreed to accept 5,700 migrants already in Britain.
Of those, 2,143 can be located for detention before being flown there, the ministry said.
Migrants who arrived in Britain between January 2022 and June 2023 are liable to have their asylum claims deemed inadmissible and be shifted to Rwanda, the interior ministry said.
