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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
World
Aurora Bosotti & Michelle Cullen

Sky News anchor forced to cut off asylum expert after foul-mouth rant live on air

A Sky News anchor was left forced to cut off a guest after they erupted into a foul-mouthed rant.

Host Kimberley Leonard cut off Rwandan journalist Eleneus Akanga for swearing as he hit out at the British Government's Rwanda immigration processing scheme live on air.

Akanga compared the Government's immigration policy to "s*****ng in the wind".

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Mr Akanga insisted empirical data had shown the scheme would not work in the long-term and cited the assessment of asylum seeker support charities to hit out at the plan.

The freelance reporter, who himself escaped to the UK after voicing criticism against Paul Kagame's government, said: "I think it's nonsense.

"It is unpractical, it doesn't work because of all sorts of faults.

"It's probably illegal, so many people who have dealt with immigrants, who have dealt with refugees, have said this is an unworkable policy.

"I don't understand why the Government seems so very keen to plough on with this policy regardless of the evidence that it won't work.

"We've seen since it was announced an increase in refugees or asylum seekers crossing the Channel coming into the UK."

Addressing his co-panellist, Mr Akanga added: "Now, Kevin Saunders is talking about the need to do something but this is like s*****ng in the wind.

"You can't just s**t in the wind and just hope..."

But Sky News host Kimberley Leonard immediately interrupted him to apologise to viewers: "Oh, sorry. We can't say that.

"You can't use that language here, I'm really sorry.

"So let's just say you say it's unworkable and there's clear evidence that it hasn't worked."

Both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, currently vying to take over from Boris Johnson in September, have both thrown their support behind the Rwanda scheme.

Mr Sunak and Ms Truss set out their plans to press ahead with the controversial policy of sending illegal migrants to Rwanda.

The first deportation flight was blocked last month by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The Foreign Secretary said she would look to pursue more "third country processing partnerships like Rwanda", would increase the border force by 20 percent and strengthen Britain's Bill of Rights.

In a statement, she said: "As prime minister, I am determined to see the Rwanda policy through to full implementation as well as exploring other countries where we can work on similar partnerships.

"I'll make sure we have the right levels of force and protection at our borders. I will not cower to the ECHR and its continued efforts to try and control immigration policy."

Mr Sunak said he would treat illegal immigration as "one of five major emergency responses" he will tackle in his first 100 days as prime minister.

Writing in The Sun, the former Chancellor said: "I'll take a hard-headed targets approach, with incentives for people who meet them and penalties for those who don't.

"If a country won't cooperate on taking back illegal migrants, I won't think twice about our relationship with them when it comes to foreign aid, trade and visas."

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