Boris Johnson and Priti Patel have set out widely criticised plans to fly migrants who cross the Channel in small boats to Rwanda. The eye-catching scheme announced on Thursday comes after the Home Secretary has come under sustained pressure to stop asylum seekers making the perilous journeys.
And it comes as the Prime Minister battles to hold on to his job after being fined by police for breaching his own coronavirus laws. The government's plan involves taxpayer-funded charter flights to transfer people on a 4,000 miles journey. The Times reported that each migrant sent to Rwanda is expected to set British taxpayers back between £20,000 and £30,000 to cover the flight cost, and accommodation both before and after the journey, reports Essex Live.
Mr Mitchell, a former Tory international development secretary, said the policy would prove “incredibly expensive”, reports the PA. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The problem with the scheme that they have announced is that I don’t think it will work.
