Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, omits to mention whether the British government found a carrier for flights to a country in East Africa.
The first flights taking migrants to Rwanda are scheduled to begin “within weeks,” according to Britain’s health secretary, although it was not disclosed if the government had secured a carrier.
According to Victoria Atkins, they want aircraft from Britain to Rwanda carrying asylum seekers to depart “as quickly as possible.”
During an interview with Sky News, she stated, “We very much plan to have it within weeks”.
Concerned about rumors Rwanda’s airline wouldn’t handle the flights, I asked if the government had found a carrier. She said, “The Home Office is working on this…believe you me, the Home Office is ready to go.”
“We have seen some real progress in the last year with the reduction in small boat crossings by a third, which is contrary actually to the trend we’ve seen across the European continent,” she stated.
The Rwandan plan, according to Atkins, is really “one part of our overall plan to cut illegal migration.”
RwandAir was contacted about operating the flights, but they declined the government’s request late last year, according to allegations that surfaced last week.
Moving asylum seekers
At their meeting on April 9 in London, Rwandan President Paul Kagame and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed excitement about the first flights leaving in the spring.
Though his groundbreaking Rwanda plan faced numerous legal setbacks, Sunak aims to repatriate asylum seekers who come to the UK every year in small boats to the nation in East Africa.
One of the most divisive initiatives of the government’s immigration strategy was the Rwanda plan, which provoked widespread protests around the UK and international criticism.
Over 45,000 irregular migrants entered the UK through small boats in 2022, according to Sunak, who stated in January of last year that his government’s top five goals was to address these crossings.
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
