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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Dan Bloom

Channel asylum seekers to be forced onto one-way Rwanda flight under 'evil' Priti Patel plan

Channel boat passengers will be sent to UK detention centres then forced onto a one-way flight to Rwanda under Priti Patel's "evil" plan - with no option to claim asylum in Britain.

Those deemed "inadmissible" for an asylum claim by the Home Office will get just five days' notice before being packed off onto a charter flight - like those used for deporting foreign criminals.

Details emerging today confirm the plans are more severe than earlier claims - which suggested people would be sent to Rwanda while a UK asylum claim was processed.

Instead, people deemed "inadmissible" will be "removed" on a plane, put in a hostel in Rwanda and be told to make an asylum claim there, which takes three months on average.

They will not be detained once they are in Rwanda itself and will have multiple routes to claim asylum there.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is met by delegates as she arrives in Rwanda (PA)

While details were still emerging, it appears refugees who are removed will not have an option to claim asylum in the UK.

It comes after the Home Office introduced rules last year saying refugees can be deemed "inadmissible" to claim asylum if the UK decides another "safe country" should be responsible.

Not all those deemed "inadmissible" will be sent to Rwanda. Children will not be sent and families would not be broken up, it is thought.

But it's understood both men and women could be sent, despite earlier claims to the contrary, as well as LGBTQ refugees and even refugees from Rwanda itself.

Cases for exceptions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis but some people will be forced to board a removal flight if the Home Office rules they don't have a good enough case.

Priti Patel said she will not disclose the criterion that will be used to decide who gets sent to Rwanda (Getty Images)

It's expected the number of people removed to Rwanda will be in the thousands in the first few years of the scheme, with the first flights beginning in the coming months.

Upon arrival through an "illegal" route - like a dinghy or a fridge truck - people will be taken to Manston Airport in Kent. The Navy will patrol the Channel, though the Army will not be involved in intercepting them.

They will then be transferred to Border Force where they will be screened. If they are deemed suitable for removal to Rwanda, they could be placed in immigration detention.

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