A government source confirmed to Sky News that his new Illegal Migration Bill would “seal all the loopholes” and that UK officials “are certainly working to get flights off the ground in the summer.”
It comes as the Home Secretary signed an update to the government’s migrant agreement with Rwanda, extending its scope to “all categories of people passing through safe countries and making illegal and dangerous journeys to the UK.”
A Home Office statement said it would allow the government to comply with its new legislation as it would mean those coming to the UK illegally, who “cannot be returned to their country of origin”, will be “within scope of relocation in Rwanda”.
The new bill would see those coming to the UK detained and returned to their country of origin, or to a “safe third country such as Rwanda”.
brave sole hailed the strengthening of the UK’s migration partnership with Rwanda when he visited Kigali in Rwanda for official engagements this weekend, including a meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Dr. Vincent Biruta.
The UK government plans to send tens of thousands of migrants over 4,000 miles away to Rwanda as part of a £120m deal with Rwanda last year.
No one has made the trip yet, after a the flight was stopped late in June last year following an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
On Saturday, Ms. Braverman and Dr. Biruta signed the updated Memorandum of Understanding, further expanding the partnership.
Rwanda has ‘abundant resources’
Speaking to the media on Saturday, Ms Braverman said: “What the bill does is dramatically and significantly reduce the legal avenues available – the claims available to people to thwart their removal or relocation from the UK.” .
“To delay their detention. To undermine our rules. And what we’re seeing right now is people using modern slavery claims, asylum claims, human rights laws… just to thwart our duty to control our borders.”
He continued: “Our bill fixes that, and we’ve struck the right balance between justice, on the one hand, to provide a strong system of legal duties and powers to stop and expel, and compassion, so we’re relocating the people in a safe country.
“And as we’ve seen here in Rwanda, there are abundant resources to support and properly accommodate people so they can live safe lives.”
The Interior Minister tours a new training academy under construction in Kigali during her visit to Rwanda.
Braverman visits possible housing for migrants
During her visit to Rwanda, the the home secretary spent time meeting with refugeeswho had been supported by the government of the country to rebuild their lives.
He also toured the new housing developments, which will be used to relocate people, and visited new, modern, long-term accommodation that will support those relocating to Rwanda.
A refugee living in Rwanda, Fesseha Teame, told reporters on Saturday that he had “never felt like I was considered a foreigner” but said he did not see the African nation as having the capacity to host “many thousands” of migrants.
The 48-year-old, with a wife and four children, spoke to the media after the interior minister said: “Rwanda has the capacity to resettle many thousands of people and can quickly find accommodation once flights start. “.
Ms Braverman also said the suggestion that Rwanda could only take 200 people is a “completely false narrative spread by critics who want to cancel the deal”.
The figure of 200 cited was used by Rwandan government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo when speaking to British journalists last year.
Suella Braverman visits a newly built house with the Minister of Information, Communication and Technology, Claudette Irere, in Rwanda
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Ms. Braverman met with investment startups and entrepreneurs to discuss the variety of business and employment opportunities available to people in Rwanda.
Earlier this month, the prime minister announced a package that will include the establishment of a new detention center in France, as well as the deployment of more French staff and improved technology to patrol beaches in a shared effort to reduce illegal immigration.
Throughout 2022, some 45,728 people crossed into the UK through the Canal – 60% more than the previous year.
Ms Braverman said she would visit Rwanda this weekend to “strengthen the government’s commitment to the partnership as part of our plan to stop the ships and discuss plans to operationalize our agreement shortly.”