UK To Start Deportation Of Asylum Seekers To Rwanda, Home Offfice Reveals

International News On The UK-Rwanda Deportation Bill – UK To Start Deportation Of Asylum Seekers To Rwanda.

The Home Office has said that migrants will begin to be held in the coming weeks in preparation for the first flights to Rwanda.

It comes after the Guardian claimed that detainees will begin to be transported to detention facilities on Monday.

In response, the Home Office stated that the government was “entering the final phase” of implementing the policy.

Aamer Anwar, a human rights lawyer based in Glasgow, claimed he was told detentions would begin on Monday.

He predicted that “the spirit of Kenmure Street will explode across the UK” in the coming days, referring to events in Glasgow in 2021 in which hundreds of people blocked an immigration van to prevent asylum seekers from being transported.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has stated that the first flight should take off in 10 to 12 weeks.

A spokesperson for the Home Office stated that at some point, preparations would “inevitably” include people being detained.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further on operational activity,” the spokesperson concluded.

According to the Guardian, officials intend to detain asylum seekers who arrive for routine meetings at immigration service offices, as well as pick up people across the country in a massive two-week operation. These individuals would then be transferred to detention centers.

The policy, which would send some asylum seekers to Rwanda, aims to deter people from crossing the channel in small boats.

According to Home Office figures, 359 migrants attempted the dangerous crossing on Saturday. In response to the Guardian report, Sonya Sceats, chief executive of the charity Freedom from Torture, told the BBC: “Make no mistake, this government’s latest attack on refugees will further traumatise people who have fled torture chambers in search of safety and a chance to rebuild their lives in the UK.”

“Our clinical services have shown that even torture survivors who are completely safe from harm tend to live in a semi-permanent state of hypervigilance to threats due to their history of being rounded up, detained, and abused in authoritarian states. As a result, news of this crackdown is certain to cause mental health collapse in many of the men, women, and children under our therapists’ care.

The Safety of Rwanda Act, which seeks to avoid further legal challenges to the policy by declaring Rwanda a safe country, was approved by MPs and peers this week and signed into law Thursday.

However, court challenges could still stall the plan.

Meanwhile, Mr Sunak has stated that claims that the Rwanda plan is causing an increase in migration to Ireland demonstrate that it is already having a deterrent effect.

Earlier this week, Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin stated that there had been an increase in the number of people crossing the border from Northern Ireland into the Republic, due in part to people being “fearful” of staying in the UK because they could be deported to Rwanda.

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