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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow

UK plans to send thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda, says Boris Johnson – as it happened

Boris Johnson Priti Patel Rwanda United Kingdom Today Kigali

These are from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.

'Morally reprehensible, probably unlawful and [possibly] unworkable' - former Home Office head on Rwanda plan

Sir David Normington, who was permanent secretary at the Home Office between 2005 and 2011, has delivered a withering verdict on the plan to effectively deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. In an interview with the BBC’s Newsnight, he said:

Let’s assume that’s actually going to happen, because there are lots of hurdles to get over and the prime minister admitted that, so it’s not going to solve a problem very quickly. But let’s assume it is going happen and the government is serious about it.

My assessment is, well, first of all it’s inhumane, it’s morally reprehensible, it’s probably unlawful and it may well be unworkable.

Updated

Imran Ahmad Khan to resign as MP for Wakefield, triggering key byelection test for Labour

Imran Ahmad Khan has announced that he is standing down as an MP. He is appealing his conviction for sexual assault and, even though he is not required to resign as an MP at this point, he says that an appeal could take months and that he does not think it would be right for his constituents to go so long without proper representation.

This means that there will be a byelection in Wakefield, a classic “red wall” seat, held by Labour since the 1930s but won by the Tories in 2019. Khan had a majority of 3,358 and if Labour fail to win the byelection, then it is very hard to seeing the party having any chance of victory at the general election.

Updated

Patel says costs of Rwanda plan 'drop in ocean' compared to potential long-term costs of flawed asylum system

Priti Patel, the home secretary, has rejected claims that her plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will be too expensive. Speaking to reporters in Rwanda, she said the costs were “a drop in the ocean” compared to the costs of not tackling the rising number of people arriving by crossing the Channel in small boats. She said:

The costs right now [of the asylum system] are going to go up and up and up because we can’t stop the boats today or tomorrow.

The projections for the summer are incredibly high. Currently, we stand at a bill for taxpayers for over £1.5bn pounds a year and that’ll just go up if we do nothing.

Our work with the government of Rwanda, our work when it comes to removals and charter flights, are a drop in the ocean, compared to the long-term aggregated costs to UK taxpayers and it’s unfair on hard pressed taxpayers.

I’m not ashamed to say that at all, I’m absolutely very vocal about standing up for hard pressed British taxpayers constantly, because it’s not just about the money costs. It’s about the wider strains and pressures.

Asked if she was “really sure about this idea” in light of a deal struck between the Israelis and Rwanda a few years ago which saw “many of those people ending up in the hands of people traffickers, murdered, raped, tortured, and enslaved” (see 1.50pm), she replied: “The answer is yes.” She also said that Rwanda had resettled more than 130,000 refugees from Africa and neighbouring countries - and they “do that incredibly well”.

She also confirmed that the plan was not conditional on the nationality and borders bill becoming law.

The Ministry of Defence will bolster Border Force with an offshore patrol vessel, up to six patrol boats, and one Wildcat helicopter operating in the Channel, PA Media reports. PA says:

The MoD will make available a range of Royal Navy surface and surveillance assets to bolster Border Force capabilities until longer-term capabilities have been contracted.

It is understood the MoD will make use of offshore patrol vessels, which are typically used for coastal defence, and have been used to protect and enforce UK fishing waters.

It will also use up to six P2000s patrol boats, and one Wildcat helicopter, the latter of which is described on the MoD’s website as a “maritime attack helicopter”, capable of operating from frigates and destroyers.

The MoD has secured £50m to implement its role in the Channel and provide additional capabilities.

A group of people being brought in to Dover, Kent, today onboard Border Force vessel Searcher following a small boat incident in the Channel.
A group of people being brought in to Dover, Kent, today onboard Border Force vessel Searcher after a small boat incident in the Channel. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Updated

The president of the Law Society of England and Wales, I. Stephanie Boyce, has criticised Boris Johnson for attacking “politically motivated lawyers” (see 11.39am) in his speech this morning. She said:

It is particularly disappointing - this week of all weeks - the government is repeating misleading suggestions that legal challenges are politically motivated.

Legal challenges establish if the government is abiding by its own laws.

If the government wishes to avoid losing court cases, it should act within the law of the land.

Two oligarchs linked to Roman Abramovich have faced sanctions, the Foreign Office has announced. They are Eugene Tenenbaum, a director of Abramovich’s club, Chelsea FC, and David Davidovich, described as Abramovich’s “much lower profile right-hand man”. The Foreign Office claims assets worth £10bn will be frozen as a result of these measures.

Updated

Conservative MPs approve of the plane to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, ITV’s Anushka Asthana reports.

The Scottish government has released a statement condemning the UK government’s Rwanda plan for asylum seekers. Angus Robertson, its external affairs secretary, said:

This is an outrageous policy. The Home Office should focus on improving the asylum system, not finding new and shameful ways to make it more challenging and prolonged for people seeking safety from persecution.

The UK government must explain how it will ensure the welfare of extremely vulnerable people in any off-shoring arrangement, when it appears to be washing their hands of them.

Subjecting people to these horrifying arrangements is an abdication of the UK’s moral and international responsibilities. People must be able to make their claims for asylum with full and fair consideration by the Home Office and, if successful, be supported to rebuild their lives as refugees in the UK.

Andrew Griffith, the Conservative MP who runs the PM’s policy unit, told BBC Radio 4’s the World at One that the government did not need to wait for the nationality and borders bill to become law before it could start sending asylum seekers to Rwanda. “My understanding is this policy can come in immediately,” he said.

He said it would take “weeks or months” to become operational.

In his speech and Q&A this morning Boris Johnson implied that, because of legal challenges, implementing the policy would take a lot longer.

Updated

Boris Johnson visiting the command room at the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Dover this morning.
Boris Johnson visiting the command room at the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Dover this morning. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/AFP/Getty Images

From the Mirror’s Dan Bloom

Tory MP Neil Hudson calls for Tory leadership contest 'as soon as international situation permits'

Neil Hudson, the Tory MP for Penrith and the Border, has told constituents he believes Boris Johnson should call a leadership election after being found to have broken the law. But he said that should take place only when the situation in Ukraine had passed the peak of the crisis.

“The fact that the lawmakers went on to break those very laws they brought in to keep us all safe is deeply damaging for our democracy,” Hudson said in a statement on his website.

He said it would not be “prudent or responsible to change the leadership of the government in the midst of the international crisis that is the war in Ukraine”.

However, he said the prime minister should still show leadership by calling a vote of confidence.

I will therefore be looking to the prime minister to show the statesmanship he has been showing with Ukraine and outline a timetable and process for an orderly transition to a leadership election as soon as the international situation permits.

Updated

Farage says Rwanda policy does not go far enough, and implies Brexit won't be complete until Human Rights Act goes

The Rwanda policy looks like the sort of plan drafted to please voters who backed Ukip and the Brexit party (and who largely went Tory in 2019, but who might yet give up on Boris Johnson at the next election). But in an interview with Radio 4’s the World at One, Nigel Farage, the former Ukip and Brexit party leader, said that the proposal only deserved “half a cheer”.

Farage said that the proposal might work in the short term. But he predicted that it would soon be blocked by the courts.

All it needs is one abuse case and then of course the Human Rights Act could be invoked, and that will put a stop to the whole thing. So I see this really as being not much more than a short term solution, if it ever actually happens.

Farage said the only effective solution would be to turn back boats (a proposal that Johnson specifically rejected in his speech this morning – see 1.19pm.) Farage also said the UK would never be able to operate a robust policy towards asylum seekers while it remained signed up to the European convention on human rights. Opting out of this would complete Brexit, he implied.

We will never ever solve this problem while we stay signed up to the European convention on human rights, subject to the European court in Strasbourg, and have the incorporation of that law under the Human Rights Act into UK law ...

Boris Johnson today talked about an army of human rights lawyers. But he didn’t address the elephant in the room that is the Human Rights Act. And unless we deal with [that] – frankly, unless we complete Brexit – we’re not going to be able to deal with this.

The convention, of course, has nothing to do with the EU, but Farage’s comment was an interesting example of how what constitutes proper Brexit is continually being redefined by Brexiters, and made more extreme.

And Johnson did not entirely ignore the Human Rights Act. He clearly hinted that he would, if necessary, repeal aspects affecting immigration policy. (See 1.19pm.)

Nigel Farage.
Nigel Farage. Photograph: Chris duMond/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

In English politics it is taken as read that voters like draconian immigration politicies, which is one reason why Labour is focusing more on the cost and impracticality of the Rwanda scheme than on its ethics (in line with polling advice). But a snap YouGov poll suggests the PM’s plan may turn out to be less popular than he might have expected. It shows only about a third of people in favour, and a higher proportion, 42%, opposed.

Displaced Ukrainian students in Scotland will be given tuition and living cost support, under proposals from the Scottish government subject to parliamentary approval.

The scheme would mean Ukrainians starting a further or higher education course this autumn will be eligible for the support if they have submitted an application through the UK’s Homes for Ukraine, Ukraine Family or Ukraine extension schemes.

Jamie Hepburn, Scotland’s minister for higher and further education, said:

By extending home fee status and living cost support to students arriving from Ukraine we hope to provide some stability and assurance at this deeply troubling time and ensure those forced to flee their homes can live safely and comfortably in Scotland for as long as they need to.

Eligible university students would be able to receive free tuition and living cost support of up to £8,100 a year in bursaries and loans, and students entering further education for bursary and grants of up to £4,668 a year.

Updated

Rwanda’s leading opposition politician has criticised the deal with the UK government, urging officials to focus on solving its political and social internal issues that make its citizens seek to be refugees in other countries before it offers to host refugees or migrants from other countries, my colleagues Ignatius Ssuuna and Jason Burke report. They write:

Rwanda produces refugees too. These include Rwandan people who sought political and economic asylum in other countries. Such conditions do not in fact guarantee long-term security in Rwanda and in the Great Lakes region,” Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza said in a statement. “Rwanda has consistently ranked one of the world’s safest nations but at the same time consistently a country where its inhabitants are unhappy,” she said.

Ingabire, who was jailed for five years on what supporters say were politically motivated charges after returning to Rwanda to contest elections in 2010, said that the British and Rwandan governments’ argument that relocating migrants to Rwanda would address inequalities that drove economic migrants from their homes was not credible.

“Inequality is on the rise in Rwanda,” she said. “Despite the praise it received internationally for its development, the Covid-19 pandemic has further exposed the shortcomings of Rwanda economic progress, especially in those areas needed for Rwanda to achieve genuine social and economic transformation for the wider population.”

In October, nine people linked to Ingabire’s party and a journalist were detained in a crackdown on opponents and critics in Rwanda. The crackdown seemed prompted by an event, “Ingabire Day,” organised by the unregistered opposition party, to discuss political repression in Rwanda.

Priti Patel and Vincent Biruta, the Rwandan foreign affairs minister, shaking hands after signing an agreement at Kigali Convention Center today.
Priti Patel and Vincent Biruta, the Rwandan foreign affairs minister, shaking hands after signing an agreement at Kigali Convention Center today. Photograph: Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Lord Dubs, the Labour peer who champions the rights of refugees (he left Czechoslovakia before the second world war as a child refugee), told the World at One on BBC Radio 4 he thought the Rwanda plan was in breach of the Geneva convention for refugees. “I think it’s an abuse of their human rights and I don’t believe it will achieve what the government wanted anyway,” he said.

Updated

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, has said the plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda will “only lead to more human suffering, chaos and at huge expense to the UK”. He said:

Treating people like human cargo by using the force of military to repel vulnerable people who have already endured extreme human suffering, and expelling them to centres in Rwanda, a country with a questionable record on human rights, is dangerous, cruel and inhumane.

Karen Bradley, the Conservative former Northern Ireland secretary, has suggested Boris Johnson should resign over Partygate. In a statement on her website she said:

My constituents know that I have been clear that those that make the rules must not break them, whether intentionally or otherwise. The public are right to expect the highest standards of behaviour from their leaders ...

I do wish to make it clear that if I had been a minister found to have broken the laws that I passed, I would be tendering my resignation now.

Coronavirus infections falling across most of UK, ONS says

Covid-19 infections have fallen across most of the UK, though levels in Wales remain at a record high, PA Media reports. PA says:

England has seen infections drop for the first time in six weeks, with 3.8 million people likely to have had coronavirus last week, or around one in 14.

This is down from 4.1 million the previous week, or one in 13, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Scotland and Northern Ireland have also seen levels fall.

But in Wales infections have risen for the sixth successive week, with 231,900 people estimated to have had Covid-19 last week, or one in 13 – up slightly from 230,800, also one in 13.

Updated

This is from Sayeeda Warsi, a former Conservative party chair, on the Rwanda plan.

Here is the full text of the memorandum of understanding between the UK and Rwanda on asylum seekers.

Updated

On Radio 4’s the World at One Mark Easton, the BBC home affairs editor, reminded listeners that Rwanda was once involved in a secret, and highly controversial, deportation scheme involving Israel. My colleague Peter Beaumont wrote about it here.

There is another account of the Israeli scheme here.

Updated

From ITV’s Anushka Asthana

This is from Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, on the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

This is from ITV’s Anushka Asthana, who asked Boris Johnson about Rwanda’s human rights record at the Q&A earlier.

And this is from the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar on the same topic.

Updated

The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope says the Rwanda plan is popular with two prominent red-wall Tories.

Updated

Refugees minister Lord Harrington refuses to says he backs plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

Lord Harrington, the minister for refugees, has refused to say he supports the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, the BBC reports.

Harrington was appointed last month. A business minister in the last parliament, he was appointed minister for refugees (and made a peer) specifically to sort out the problems faced by Ukrainians trying to get visas under the two schemes set up since the war started. Last week, asked about reports that the Home Office was planning to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, he said he knew nothing about it.

Updated

From my colleague Patrick Wintour

Summary of key points from Johnson and Patel on Rwanda plan for asylum seekers

Here are the key points from what Boris Johnson, in his speech and Q&A, and Priti Patel, at her press conference in Kigali, have been saying about the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

  • Johnson said that potentially tens of thousands of asylum seekers could be sent to Rwanda over the coming years under the new scheme. (See 11.39am.) And Patel said the “vast majority” of people arriving in the UK on small boats could qualify. (See 12.16pm.) The nationality and borders bill, which has almost completed its passage through parliament, will criminalise coming to the UK without authorisation to seek asylum and the government wants to limit asylum to people who apply through the existing “safe and legal routes” (which in practice are inaccessible to many of the people who do end up being granted asylum in the UK). People sent to Rwanda will be told to claim asylum in Rwanda, not in the UK. And reports that only adult men would be sent to Rwanda have not been confirmed by the government. (Johnson said seven out of 10 people arriving on small boats last year were men under 40, but Patel said that if she disclosed the criteria that would be used to decide who would be sent to Rwanda, she would create a new opportunity for the people smugglers).
  • Johnson implied that he expected legal challenges to hold the introduction of the scheme for some time. He said in his speech:

We are confident that our new migration partnership is fully compliant with our international legal obligations, but nevertheless we expect this will be challenged in the courts, and if this country is seen as a soft touch for illegal migration by some of our partners, it is precisely because we have such a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers who for years have made it their business to thwart removals and frustrate the government. So I know that this system will not take effect overnight.

Johnson repeatedly made this point in his Q&A, too, perhaps implying that the policy is more of a statement of intent than something that the government is confident of implementing. But Patel said she was confident the plan complied with national and international law. (See 11.59am.)

  • But Johnson also hinted the government might change the law, if necessary, to allow this policy to be implemented. He said:

I promise that we will do whatever it takes to deliver this new approach, initially within the limits of the existing legal and constitutional frameworks, but [we are] also prepared to explore any and all further legal reforms which may be necessary.

This may fuel speculation that in future Johnson would like the UK to derogate from the European Convention on Human Rights.

  • Johnson said the government had abandoned plans to try to turn back small boats in the Channel. He said:

I know there are some who believe we should just turn these boats back at sea.

But after much study and consultation – including with Border Force, the police, national crime agency, military and maritime experts, to whom I pay tribute for all the incredible work that they do dealing with this problem as things stand – it’s clear that there are extremely limited circumstances when you can safely do this in the English Channel.

And it doesn’t help that this approach, I don’t think, would be supported by our French partners, and relying solely on this course of action is simply not practical in my view.

  • But he said that, from today, the Royal Navy would take charge of monitoring small boats in the Channel, with a view to ensure no boat arrives in the UK undetected. He said the new bill would allow people piloting these boats to be jailed for life. He said:

To identify, intercept and investigate these boats, from today the Royal Navy will take over operational command from Border Force in the Channel, taking primacy for our operational response at sea, in line with many of our international partners, with the aim that no boat makes it to the UK undetected.

This will be supported with £50m of new funding for new boats, aerial surveillance and military personnel in addition to the existing taskforce of patrol vessels, Wildcat helicopters, search and rescue aircraft, drones and remotely piloted aircraft.

This will send a clear message to those piloting the boats: if you risk other people’s lives in the Channel, you risk spending your own life in prison.

  • He said the new bill would also allow the UK to impose visa penalties on countries that refuse to accept the return of failed asylum seekers.
  • He claimed the new policy was needed because, in an era of “mobile connectivity”, it was more impossible than ever for the UK to take in all people seeking asylum. He said:

There are currently 80 million displaced people in the world, many in failed States where governments can’t meet their aspirations.

In an era of mobile connectivity they are a call or a text away from potentially being swept up in the tide of people smuggling.

The answer cannot be for the UK to become the haven for all of them.

That is a call for open borders by the back door, a political argument masquerading as a humanitarian policy.

Those in favour of this approach should be honest about it and argue for it openly.

We reject it, as the British people have consistently rejected it at the ballot box – in favour of controlled immigration.

  • He claimed that other countries would want to adopt this approach. He said:

And that is what I think is most exciting about the partnership we have agreed with Rwanda today because we believe it will become a new international standard in addressing the challenges of global migration and people smuggling.

Patel made the same claim too. (See 12.06pm.)

  • Johnson said those opposed to the plan had to explain what their alternative was. He said:

This problem has bedevilled our country for too long and caused far too much human suffering and tragedy, and this is the government that refuses to duck the difficult decisions, this is the government that makes the big calls, and I profoundly believe there is simply no other option.

And I say to those who would criticise our plan today, we have a plan; what is your alternative?

Boris Johnson delivering his speech at Lydd airport this morning.
Boris Johnson delivering his speech at Lydd airport this morning. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

Updated

Here is the full text of Boris Johnson’s speech on tackling illegal immigration.

Matt Dathan from the Times, who is one of the journalists accompanying Priti Patel on her trip to Rwanda, has posted more picutures on Twitter of the accommodation where it is proposed asylum seekers from the UK will be housed.

Keir Starmer has dismissed the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as unworkable. He told the BBC:

I think we need to see these plans for what they are. It is a desperate announcement by a prime minister who just wants to distract from his own law breaking.

They are unworkable, they’re extortionate, they’re going to cost taxpayers billions of pounds, and they just reflect a prime minister who’s got no grip, no answers to the questions that need answering and no shame. And I just think Britain deserves better than this.

Updated

Boris Johnson inspecting a drone used by HM Coastguard, for surveillance and rescue of migrants at Lydd Airport this morning.
Boris Johnson inspecting a drone used by HM Coastguard, for surveillance and rescue of migrants at Lydd Airport this morning. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AFP/Getty Images

Q: What will happen if people have family in the UK? Will they be sent to Rwanda?

Patel says she wants to differentiate between people admissable and inadmissable to the asylum system.

People who will have access to the asylum system will be people using safe and legal routes, or people fleeing persecution.

This system will apply to people coming to the UK via people smugglers, she says. It is for people not admissable to the asylum system.

Q: Could a Ukraininan refugee be sent to Rwanda?

Patel says there are safe and legal routes for Ukrainian refugees. There is no need for them to use people smugglers.

The route for Ukrainians is also uncapped, she says. It is the first uncapped route set up by the government.

Updated

Patel says 'vast majority' of people arriving in UK on small boats will be considered for relocation to Rwanda

Q: How will you select people to go to Rwanda? And how long will they stay?

Patel says the government is clear that everyone who enters the UK illegally will be considered for resettlement in Rwanda. But she will not give the criteria that will be used to select people. She says they do not want to help the people smugglers adapt their business model.

But she says the “vast majority” of people who arrive in the UK on small boats will be considered.

Updated

Q: The Home Office says the first people could be flown to Rwanda within months. But the Rwandan government says it is still arranging the lease of the hostel. When will the removals start?

Patel says she does not want to discuss numbers. Removing people from the UK is hard. But the nationality and borders bill will change the law.

But she says they are “ready to operationalise”.

She says it is for the Rwandan government to explain the details. But the two governments have been working together on the logistics, she says.

Hope House, a hostel in Nyabugogo in the Gasabo district of Kigali in Rwanda, where the government intends to house asylum seekers arriving from the UK.
Hope House, a hostel in Nyabugogo in the Gasabo district of Kigali in Rwanda, where the government intends to house asylum seekers arriving from the UK.
 Photograph: Flora Thompson/PA

Updated

From the Sun’s Natasha Clark

Q: Australia has set up an offshore processing centre, and there are reports of people there self-harming, or taking their lives. What will you do to stop that? Or is it just a matter for Rwanda?

Patel says this is a partnership. It is not a one-sided deal.

She says Australia is not comparable. This scheme is different, she says.

The UK is investing in Rwanda, not just on the economic side, but in the migration partnership.

She says she and Biruta are “absolutely committed to changing some of the norms around the broken global migration system”.

Q: Do you have the infrastructure to cope?

Biruta says they will be investing in new infrastructure going forward.

Patel and Biruta are now taking questions.

Q: How has Rwanda’s previous experience influenced its decision to agree this deal?

Biruta says Rwanda is already hosting 130,000 refugees.

And he says in Rwanda many people have experience of being displaced.

You could be indifferent to the problem, he says, or you can try new solutions. He says the government has partnered with the UK to try a new solution to the immigration crisis.

Q: Why did the UK choose Rwanda?

Patel says the UK has been talking to Rwanda for nine months about this.

Rwanda has a unique record on resettlement, she says. It has taken 130,000 refugees, from multiple countries. It has been very forward-leaning. It has shown respect for people, and allowed people to restart their lives.

Updated

Patel says people resettled in Rwanda will be given support for up to five years, covering training, accommodation and healthcare, so they can resettle and thrive.

She claims the plan “fully complies with all international and national law”.

Patel says the British people are fair and generous in helping people in need.

But persistent abuse of the system has undermined public support for it, she says.

Putting evil people smugglers out of business is a moral imperative. It requires us to use every tool at our disposal, and also to find new solutions. That is why today’s migration and economic development partnership with Rwanda is a major milestone.

Updated

Priti Patel's press conference

Priti Patel, the home secretary, is speaking at a press conference in Kigali, Rwanda, alongside Vincent Biruta, the Rwandan foreign affairs minister.

She says Rwanda has been a regional and international leader.

The international migration crisis requires new solutions, she says.

She says there are 80 million people displaced around the world.

Criminals and people smugglers are exploiting them, giving them false promises about how they can settle in the UK.

Some people die coming to the UK.

And the people smuggling system is unfair, because it means people who can pay people smugglers get priority over people who cannot.

She says the new system announced today amounts to the biggest overhaul of the scheme for decades.

Rwanda has resettled over 130,000 refugees in recent years, she says. It has a strong record on this front. It has not just resettled refugees from the region; it has taken people from Libya.

Updated

The Home Office has released a press release about the deal with Rwanda. It confirms, as Mark Easton said on the BBC this morning (see 9.11am), that people being sent to Rwanda will just get a “one-way ticket”.

The government has been floating the prospect of offshore processing for asylum seekers for some time, but the assumption had been that people might be flown offshore (ie, to a country abroad) to have their claims for asylum in the UK processed, with those found to qualify eventually being allowed to return. Under this plan, people would instead only be offered the chance to seek asylum in Rwanda.

Here is an extract from the briefing.

Migrants who make dangerous or illegal journeys, such as by small boat or hidden in lorries, have their asylum claim processed in Rwanda. Those whose claims are accepted will then be supported to build a new and prosperous life in one of the fastest-growing economies, recognised globally for its record on welcoming and integrating migrants.

Under this partnership the UK is investing £120 million into the economic development and growth of Rwanda. Funding will also be provided to support the delivery of asylum operations, accommodation and integration, similar to the costs incurred in the UK for these services.

There were reports this morning that the plan would only apply to adult males. But the Home Office press release implies any asylum seekers arriving in the UK on small boats could be sent to Rwanda.

Updated

What Boris Johnson said about plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

Here is the key extract from Boris Johnson’s speech explaining what the new plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will involve. He said:

Fom today, our new migration and economic development partnership will mean that anyone entering the UK illegally – as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1st – may now be relocated to Rwanda.

This innovative approach – driven by our shared humanitarian impulse and made possible by Brexit freedoms – will provide safe and legal routes for asylum, while disrupting the business model of the gangs, because it means that economic migrants taking advantage of the asylum system will not get to stay in the UK, while those in genuine need will be properly protected, including with access to legal services on arrival in Rwanda, and given the opportunity to build a new life in that dynamic country, supported by the funding we are providing.

The deal we have done is uncapped and Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead ...

We are confident that our new migration partnership is fully compliant with our international legal obligations, but nevertheless we expect this will be challenged in the courts, and if this country is seen as a soft touch for illegal migration by some of our partners, it is precisely because we have such a formidable army of politically motivated lawyers who for years have made it their business to thwart removals and frustrate the government.

So I know that this system will not take effect overnight.

Boris Johnson speaking at Lydd airport near Dover this morning
Boris Johnson speaking at Lydd airport near Dover this morning. Photograph: WPA/Getty Images

Updated

Johnson ends by stressing that he cannot pretend that this plan will be implemented overnight.

But he insists this is the humane and compassionate thing to do.

The Q&A is over. I’ll post a summary of the key points from it, and from the speech, shortly.

Q: Can you say there will be no further problems with small boats after this?

Johnson says he cannot say that. They are not going to get the numbers down to zero “anytime soon”, he says.

Q: Will there be a deal with France after the French presidential election?

Johnson says the government has been trying to negotiate a returns agreement with France for the last two years. “It has been disappointing and frustrating that we’ve been unable to do that,” he says.

Q: Andrew Mitchell says it would be cheaper to put up people claiming asylum in the Ritz. So are you happy with the costs of this?

Johnson says asylum seekers are already costing the country £1.5bn a year. Hotel costs are running at £5m a day. Those costs will climb. That is why they need a deterrent, to break the business model of the people-smuggling gangs.

What’s happening already, the asylum system is already costing this country £1.5bn a year.

The hotel costs are now £5m a day. You talk about the Ritz, they are now £5m a day, and it’s climbing. And unless we can beat the business model of the gangs, I’m afraid it will continue to climb, and what we need to put in place is the deterrent system that will change their minds, make them see that they’ve made the wrong deal, and that there is a better path for them if they really want to come to the UK.

Updated

Q: Would you like to get the number of people crossing the Channel illegally down to zero?

Ideally, yes, says Johnson.

Johnson claims Sunak can stay in his post as long as he wants

Q: Has Rishi Sunak got his job for as long as he wants it?

Yes, says Johnson.

(That sounds unlikely. No cabinet minister, realistically, can expect to stay in post for as long as they want.)

Johnson says some boats being used by people smugglers are being made to order in China.

Johnson says he will correct record over Partygate when he addresses parliament next week

Q: When you address MPs next week will you correct the record over what you said about no parties taking place in Downing Street?

Johnson says he will speak to MPs next week. He goes on:

Of course I will set the record straight in any way that I can.

Updated

Johnson says he expects other countries to follow UK with Rwanda-type plan for asylum seekers

Q: These people are coming from countries were there are no safe options available for asylum seekers. Why are you sending them to a country with a human rights record your own government has criticised?

Johnson says the UK does have safe and legal routes available to asylum seekers.

On Rwanda, he says the country has been stereotyped. It has changed a lot in recent years, he says. He says the government will be publishing a long memorandum of understanding with it.

I just want to say something about Rwanda because I think there’s a risk of stereotyping here.

Rwanda has totally transformed over the last few decades, it’s a very, very different country from what it was.

This is not something that we’ve put together overnight, this has been nine months in preparation. So I would urge people not to think in a blinkered way about Rwanda.

He says he thinks this approach is “the prototype of a solution to the problems of global migration that is likely to be adopted by other countries”.

Updated

Johnson is now taking questions.

Q: Is this a genuine plan, or are you just interested in looking tough on immigration?

Johnson says he thinks this is “necessary, but not sufficient”. Many other things have to be got right. The government needs the right legal framework, he says.

He says the government wants to persuade people to use the safe and legal routes open to asylum seekers, instead of paying people smugglers.

The threat of going to Rwanda will, over time, prove a “very considerable deterrent”, he says.

He says he is sure this will be challenged. There is a “long way to go”, he says.

Q: Having been fined for breaking the law, do you still have the moral authority to govern?

Johnson says he said quite a lot about this on Tuesday. He will say more when he updates parliament next week, he says.

Updated

Johnson says trying to turn back small boats not a practical option

Johnson says this shows the government is refusing to duck difficult decisions.

This is the government that makes the big calls and I profoundly believe there is simply no other option. And I say to those who will criticise our plan today, ‘Well we have a plan. What is your alternative?’

Johnson says some people have said the small boats should just be turned back. But he says that would only be possible in “extremely limited circumstances” and that the French authorities would not support it.

I’ve got to say to you that relying solely on this course of action is simply not practical in my view.

This is significant because the Home Office has spent a lot of time investigating the possibility of using what it call pushback.

Updated

Johnson says tens of thousands of people could be sent to Rwanda under relocation plan for asylum seekers

Johnson says under the new plan anyone arriving in the UK illegally could be relocated in Rwanda.

He says this plan is driven by humanitarian considerations, and made possible by Brexit freedoms.

This will disrupt the business model for people smugglers, he says.

The policy is uncapped, he says. Rwanda has the capacity to take tens of thousands of people over the years ahead.

He says the government expects this plan to face legal challenge, and so it won’t be introduced overnight.

Updated

Johnson says the people smugglers are turning the Channel into a “watery graveyard”. (See 9.36am.)

That is why the government is passing the nationality and borders bill, which creates a distinction between people coming to the UK seeking asylym legally and those arriving illegally.

Johnson says from today the Royal Navy will take charge of the operation in the Channel to deal with small boats, taking over from the Border Force.

He says the authorities will be able to prosecute people arriving illegally, with life sentences for people piloting boats.

But Johnson says there is a limit to the number of people the UK can take. He uses the passage briefed in advance. (See 9.36am.)

Seven out of 10 people arriving last year in small boats were men, he says. They were taking up capacity that could have been used to help women or children.

This is particularly perverse as those attempting crossings are not directly fleeing imminent peril, as is the intended purpose of the asylum system. They passed through manifestly safe countries, including many in Europe, where they could and should have claimed asylum.

It is this rank unfairness of a system ... which risks eroding public support for the whole concept of asylum.

Updated

Johnson says the UK is welcoming people from Ukraine.

And, as it does so, it will make sure that people who have previously come to the UK seeking asylum are now long housed in hotels, he says.

The government is currently spending £5m a day on hotel costs for immigrants, he says. And they are concentrated in just a third of local authorities.

Boris Johnson's speech on tackling illegal immigration

Boris Johnson is speaking now.

He starts by saying the UK is “a beacon of openness and generosity”. Immigrants have contributed magnificently to the history of the UK, he says.

He particularly praises the role played by immigrants in the NHS. And 60% of the England football team had an immigrant background, he says.

The opposition parties have claimed that Boris Johnson is making his speech on illegal immigration today to distract attention from Partygate. But, as the FT’s Robert Shrimsley argues, this argument ignores the extent to which Johnson is really committed to this policy. The government has been changing the law to allow the offshoring of asylum applications and it has spent the last year scouring the world for a country willing to cooperate.

From my colleague Patrick Wintour

Updated

Rwanda plan for asylum seekers could be 'humane step forward', says Welsh secretary

Simon Hart, the Welsh secretary, made a rare appearance on the morning broadcast round earlier today. He said the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda would mark a “humane step forward”. He told Sky News:

We have to deal with this problem. We have a very good relationship with Rwanda: it’s an up-and-coming economy, it has got a very good record with migrants in this particular issue.

And it’s an arrangement which I think suits both countries very well and provides the best opportunities for economic migrants, for those who have been in the forefront of this particular appalling problem for so long now.

And I think that this arrangement is a really ... it has the potential to be a really good step forward and a really humane step forward.

When it was put to him that the president of Rwanda had been accused of human rights abuses on more than one occasion, Hart replied: “That is true, but that doesn’t alter the fact that their reputation as far as migrants are concerned, and their economic progress, is phenomenal.”

Updated

Boris Johnson inspecting a drone during a visit to Lydd airport in Kent this morning, ahead of his speech on tackling illegal immigration.
Boris Johnson inspecting a drone during a visit to Lydd airport in Kent this morning, ahead of his speech on tackling illegal immigration. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

What Labour would do about people crossing Channel in small boats

Lucy Powell, the shadow culture secretary, was doing interviews on behalf of Labour this morning and, on the Today programme, was challenged as to what Labour would do to stop people crossing the Channel in small boats, risking their lives, to seek asylum in the UK. She replied:

We’ve put forward proposals to make it more difficult for smuggler gangs to advertise online on social media, which is partly how they do it.

We think there should be safe and legal routes that people need for family reunions and so on, so that they don’t have to arrive through these illegal routes in order to make their asylum claims.

We think the Home Office needs to get a grip of the decision-making process – asylum decisions are now incredibly slow – not just months, but years.

We’ve got some of the slowest decision-making in Europe, and crucially, we haven’t got these return agreements.

So even though I think around about two-thirds of the asylum cases of those that come across the Channel are in fact granted, the third that aren’t granted can’t be returned.

Updated

Tory MP Tobias Ellwood restates call for PM to quit, saying replacing him would not harm Ukraine policy

Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons defence committee, has restated his call for Boris Johnson to quit. “How can a lawmaker also be a lawbreaker? This is not a good look,” he told the Today programme.

Ellwood also dismissed claims made by many of his colleagues that it would be wrong to replace the prime minister while the war in Ukraine continues. He explained:

There’s not going to be a lull in the fighting, no pause just around the corner, for us to take stock of domestic matters.

Every month, every year, European security is going to deteriorate well beyond Ukraine, and history anyway shows that we can and do replace leaders in times of crisis.

We did in fact replace the head of the armed forces just as recently as December, as Russian troops were amassing, with an admiral with no combat experience.

But critically, our formidable government apparatus, our well-oiled MoD machine, allows us to do just that – to replace people if that is required.

Our approach to Ukraine would remain consistent, so I do hope that we won’t use the war as a fig leaf to dodge these tough questions that, absolutely, we must address.

Ellwood also repeated the proposal he first made in February that Johnson should voluntarily trigger a vote of confidence in his position. He said:

I think the prime minister has made his intentions clear – he wants to stay – but this is bigger than the prime minister.

It’s about the reputation of the party for which all colleagues must defend, and I believe he owes it to the parliamentary party, once the reports have concluded and the local elections have allowed the public view to be factored in, to agree to hold his own vote of confidence if those elections go badly.

Tobias Ellwood.
Tobias Ellwood. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

NHS England hospital waiting list reaches 6.2m – new record high

The number of people in England waiting to start routine hospital treatment has risen to a new record, PA Media reports. A total of 6.2 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of February, NHS England said. This is up from 6.1 million in January and is the highest number since records began in August 2007.

This is from Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary.

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has described the plan to send people seeking asylum in the UK to Rwanda as “despicable”.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, says an Australian plan for offshoring refugees, similar to the one being announced by Boris Johnson, cost £1.7m per person.

Johnson claims he wants UK to have 'world-leading asylum offer'

In his speech today Boris Johnson will explicitly link today’s policy announcement with Brexit, saying it is about taking back control of illegal immigration. According to extracts released overnight, he will say:

We cannot sustain a parallel illegal system. Our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not.

The British people voted several times to control our borders, not to close them, but to control them.

So just as Brexit allowed us to take back control of legal immigration by replacing free movement with our points-based system, we are also taking back control of illegal immigration, with a long-term plan for asylum in this country.

It is a plan that will ensure the UK has a world-leading asylum offer, providing generous protection to those directly fleeing the worst of humanity, by settling thousands of people every year through safe and legal routes.

Johnson is fond of describing government initiatives as world-leading, or world-beating, even though in the past these boasts have sometimes been absurdly misleading.

In his speech Johnson will also say the government needs to act to stop the Channel being a “watery graveyard”. He will say:

Before Christmas 27 people drowned, and in the weeks ahead there may be many more losing their lives at sea, and whose bodies may never be recovered.

Around 600 came across the Channel yesterday. In just a few weeks this could again reach a thousand a day.

I accept that these people – whether 600 or one thousand – are in search of a better life; the opportunities that the United Kingdom provides and the hope of a fresh start.

But it is these hopes – these dreams – that have been exploited. These vile people smugglers are abusing the vulnerable and turning the Channel into a watery graveyard, with men, women and children drowning in unseaworthy boats and suffocating in refrigerated lorries.

Updated

Human rights groups and organisations that support refugees have strongly criticised the government’s Rwanda plan. In our overnight story we quote Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, saying the government is “choosing control and punishment above compassion”.

This is from Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty International UK’s refugee and migrant rights director:

Sending people to another country – let alone one with such a dismal human rights record – for asylum ‘processing’ is the very height of irresponsibility and shows how far removed from humanity and reality the government now is on asylum issues.

The government is already wrecking our asylum system at huge cost to the taxpayer while causing terrible anxiety to the people stuck in the backlogs it has created.

But this shockingly ill-conceived idea will go far further in inflicting suffering while wasting huge amounts of public money.

And this is from Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action:

This grubby cash-for-people plan would be a cowardly, barbaric and inhumane way to treat people fleeing persecution and war.

Ministers seem too keen to ignore the reality that most people who cross the Channel in flimsy boats are refugees from countries where persecution and war are rife and who just want to live in safety.

Updated

Boris Johnson provokes fury with plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda

Good morning. Boris Johnson campaigned for Brexit on the grounds that it would allow the UK to “take back control” of its immigration arrangements. But the government’s failure to stop people crossing the Channel in small boats to claim asylum (almost 30,000 last year) has made a mockery of that, and today Johnson is going to announce a new approach that will make government policy in this area more hardline than it has been for decades.

The government is going to sign a deal with Rwanda for it to take some of the people crossing the Channel in the hope of settling in Britain. Instead they will be flown 4,500 miles away to Africa. Full details of the plan have not yet been revealed, but it seems the policy will apply to single men. Some reports have said they will be taken to Rwanda to have their asylum applications processed, but Mark Easton, the BBC’s home affairs editor, told Radio 4’s Today programme within the last hour that it would be a “one-way ticket” for people who would be settled in Rwanda.

Here is our overnight story on the plan.

Johnson will set out the details in a speech this morning. And Priti Patel, the home secretary, is in Rwanda, where she will brief journalists later. She put this on Twitter last night.

Johnson won the Brexit campaign largely on the issue of immigration and, although Channel crossings are a matter of public concern, there is undoubtedly a political element behind this; in the past the evidence has shown that voters support draconian migration policies, and Johnson is pushing policy into territory that Labour cannot match. If he wanted to provoke a fierce reaction, that is what he has achieved.

This is what Yvette Coooper, the shadow home secretary, said about the plan last night.

And this is what Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, said about it on the Today programme this morning.

It’s just chilling, absolutely chilling, to think that people who are coming here for a whole host of reasons – vulnerable people – are going to be taken all the way to Africa to be processed.

This is not the mark of a civilised society. It’s evil.

It just turns my stomach to see that our government acting in our name can behave in such a way, and I think a lot of people are going to be quite aghast.

I will be focusing on this story for most of the day. But here is the agenda.

9.30am: NHS England publishes its latest hospital waiting figures.

10.25am: Boris Johnson gives a speech on tackling illegal immigration.

12pm: The ONS publishes its weekly coronavirus infection survey. (It is normally out on Friday, but tomorrow is a bank holiday.)

Afternoon: Priti Patel is due to hold a press briefing in Rwanda.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com.

Updated

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