A failed asylum seeker has been sent to Rwanda under a voluntary scheme separate from the Government’s flagship deportation plan.
The unnamed man is the first to have voluntarily moved to Rwanda after being offered up to £3,000 financial aid and sent on a commercial flight to the central African country.
The voluntary return scheme was widened to include Rwanda as a destination earlier this year. The voluntary return scheme is separate from the Conservative Government’s plan to deport to the central African country those arriving via small boats in the English Channel.
The man is of “African origin” and took the voluntary offer some weeks ago. The news comes ahead of what is expected to be a testing set of local and mayoral elections for Rishi Sunak across England and Wales, in which the Conservatives are likely to suffer heavy losses.
The Prime Minister has made “stopping the boats” one of his five pledges to the public, with the asylum seeker’s removal seen as a signal to voters that the Government’s wider migration agenda can be made to work. The one-way journeys to Kigali are aimed at deterring other migrants from making the dangerous English Channel crossing in small boats.
