Some asylum seekers who cross the Channel to the UK will be given a one-way ticket to Rwanda, under new government plans.
The trial will involve mostly single men arriving on boats or lorries.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the £120m scheme would “save countless lives” from human trafficking.
Refugee organisations have criticised the plan as cruel, questioned its cost and impact, and raised concerns about Rwanda’s human rights record.
In a speech in Kent, Mr Johnson argued action was needed to stop “vile people smugglers” turning the ocean into a “watery graveyard”, adding the “humane and compassionate” plan was designed to break their business model.
He said he wanted to make clear to people arriving on the Kent coast they were better off taking legal routes and that the new plan would “over time prove a very considerable deterrent”.
Last year, 28,526 people are known to have crossed in small boats, up from 8,404 in 2020.
Around 600 people made the crossing on Wednesday, and Mr Johnson said the figure could reach 1,000 a day within weeks.
Mr Johnson said the scheme would be uncapped, affect those who arrived illegally since 1 January, and potentially involve tens of thousands in the coming years.
The BBC has seen accommodation the asylum seekers will be housed in, thought to have enough space for around 100 people at a time and to process up to 500 a year.
“We cannot sustain a parallel illegal system,” the prime minister said. “Our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not.”
Recent research by Ipsos Mori suggested 60% of the public were dissatisfied with the government’s migration policy – more than half of which cited Channel crossings.
Home Secretary Priti Patel travelled to the Rwandan capital Kigali to sign the deal, who said it was a “global first and it will change the way we collectively tackle illegal migration”.
BBC home editor Mark Easton, reporting from Rwanda, explained ministers face legal hurdles and substantial costs to launch the scheme.
Precise details of the plan are yet to be confirmed, but, he said the trial would be restricted to mostly single men the British authorities believe are inadmissible.
Under the proposal, Rwanda would take responsibility for the people who make the more than 4,000 mile journey, put them through an asylum process, and at the end of that process, if they are successful, they will have long-term accommodation in Rwanda.
The Rwandan government said migrants will be “entitled to full protection under Rwandan law, equal access to employment, and enrolment in healthcare and social care services”.
The UK Home Office believes existing asylum law will be enough to implement the plan, but questions remain about the legality of the scheme.
Legal hurdles
Mr Johnson said the plan was “fully compliant” with international law, but acknowledged he expected it will be subject to challenge in the courts and from a “formidable army of politically-motivated lawyers”.
Miranda Butler, a barrister who specialises in immigration law, says there are also “serious questions” about the the risks faced by migrants under this “expedited process”.
“The courts have previously struck down as unlawful plans to send asylum seekers to third countries without proper legal protections being in place,” Ms Butler adds.
Questions have also been raised over the human rights record of the Rwandan government and its president, Paul Kagame.
Last year, the UK government itself expressed concern over “continued restrictions to civil and political rights and media freedom” in Rwanda at the United Nations.
However, Mr Johnson described Rwanda as being one of the safest countries in the world.
The prime minister also announced:
- Asylum seekers who are resettled in the UK will be spread more evenly across local authorities
- Plans to hand operational control of the Channel to the Royal Navy
- £50m in funding for new equipment and specialist personal for Channel operations
- A new government facility to house migrants, described as a reception centre, in Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire
- A maximum sentence of life imprisonment for people smugglers
