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London: The UK has despatched its first asylum-seeker to Rwanda below a voluntary scheme, British media reviews mentioned on Tuesday, per week after the UK authorities adopted a controversial legislation permitting irregular migrants to be deported to the East African nation.
The voluntary scheme is separate from the federal government’s compelled deportation program that seeks to discourage asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel in small boats to stay within the UK.
The contentious legislation permits the UK authorities to expel undocumented migrants to Rwanda, the place they might be allowed to stay if their asylum purposes are profitable.
They might not be allowed to return to the UK.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative authorities plans to start the expulsions by July.
In the meantime, the unnamed man — who left the UK on Monday — is the primary to have voluntarily moved to Rwanda after being provided as much as 3,000 kilos (€3,515, $3,740) of monetary assist as a part of the separate scheme, media reviews mentioned.
He had agreed to be despatched to Kigali after his asylum request was rejected late final yr, a number of media retailers reported.
The person — who just isn’t Rwandan however mentioned to be of “African origin” — left on a industrial flight to Kigali, The Solar newspaper reported.
The information comes simply days earlier than native elections in England and Wales by which the ruling Conservatives are anticipated to endure main losses to the opposition Labour Get together.
Sunak has made “stopping the boats” considered one of his 5 guarantees to the general public, with the asylum-seeker’s elimination seen as a sign to voters that his authorities’s wider migration plan will be made to work.
“We are actually capable of ship asylum-seekers to Rwanda below our migration and financial growth partnership,” a authorities spokesperson mentioned.
“This deal permits individuals with no immigration standing within the UK to be relocated to a secure third nation the place they are going to be supported to rebuild their lives,” the spokesperson mentioned.
The federal government’s compelled deportation plan has come below fireplace from the United Nations and rights teams.
On Monday, a British authorities doc confirmed that the primary asylum-seekers to be deported from the UK to Rwanda would come from a bunch of 5,700 those who Kigali has agreed in precept to just accept.
Greater than 7,000 migrants have arrived within the UK to date this yr, making it a report excessive for the primary 4 months of a calendar yr.
Rwanda — which has a inhabitants of 13 million individuals —claims to be one of the vital secure nations on the African continent and has been praised for its trendy infrastructure.
Nevertheless, rights teams have accused President Paul Kagame of ruling in a local weather of worry, stifling dissent and free speech.
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