“We have to be realistic. We had a very strong victory in the High Court at the end of last year on Rwanda. We’ve now introduced legislation. We want to move as quickly as possible to relocate people from the UK to Rwanda,” Braverman said.
Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she was convinced Rwanda would be a safe country to resettle migrants who had arrived illegally in the United Kingdom.
She, however, declined to give any deadline for the first deportations of the erring migrants to the East African country, Reuters said.
The British government is planning to send thousands of migrants more than 4,000 miles away to Rwanda as part of a £120 million ($148 million) contract to deter asylum seekers crossing the English Channel from France in small boats.
The plan was declared in April 2022, but the first deportation flight was blocked by an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights.
A London’s High court ruled in December the scheme was legal, but opponents are seeking to appeal that judgment.
Britain, in March, set out details of a new law prohibiting the entry of asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the Channel that will prevent them from claiming asylum.
It also be used to deport them either back to their homeland or to so-called safe third countries.
Reuters reported that some charities have said the proposed law could be impractical and criminalise the efforts of thousands of genuine refugees.
Braverman, speaking about the possibility of the programme said, “We’re looking at 2023 and beyond,” she said on Sunday.
“The High Court – senior expert judges – have looked into the detail of our arrangement with Rwanda and found it to be a safe country and found our arrangements to be lawful.”
Braverman, who visited Rwanda last month, would not give a deadline for the first flight to depart.
“We have to be realistic. We had a very strong victory in the High Court at the end of last year on Rwanda. We’ve now introduced legislation. We want to move as quickly as possible to relocate people from the UK to Rwanda,” Braverman said.