British Home Secretary is said to have booked a private jet for a deportation deal

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Great Britain's Home Secretary James Cleverly: One-day trip to Kigali

Photo: AFP

Great Britain is working on a plan to deport irregular migrants to Rwanda on a large scale - so that their asylum requests can be negotiated remotely. So far, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's conservative government's plan has failed in parliament. Now it is becoming known what lengths the government has already gone to to negotiate the deal with Rwanda.

James Cleverly, the British Home Secretary, is said to have spent 165,561 pounds - the equivalent of more than 190,000 euros - on a one-day trip to the Rwandan capital Kigali. This is reported by the British “Guardian”, among others. Cleverly is said to have chartered a private jet for a one-day round trip to Kigali to sign the deportation agreement.

The trip took place on December 4th to sign the new agreement with the East African state after the Supreme Court ruled that Rwanda was an “unsafe country”. Cleverly traveled to Kigali with officials and a television crew and signed the new legally binding treaty alongside Rwanda's Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta.

However, the Rwanda deal has not been a reality since then. The second chamber of parliament, the House of Lords, voted on Wednesday against the wishes of the conservative government for several amendments to a controversial law that aims to declare Rwanda a safe third country.

No deportations before the Easter break

Now the draft, which is intended to prevent appeals in court in Great Britain, must be discussed again in the House of Commons. However, this will probably no longer be possible before Parliament takes its Easter break on Tuesday. This puts Sunak's promise to deport the first migrants to East Africa in the spring at risk.

The conservative government wants to deport all people who enter the country without the necessary documents to Rwanda, regardless of personal circumstances. You should apply for asylum there - but returning to Great Britain is impossible. Critics such as Amnesty International, but also numerous members of the House of Lords, accuse the government of violating international obligations with the project.

Prime Minister Sunak is under enormous pressure from his right wing of the party to stop irregular migration. The asylum pact with Rwanda is intended to deter migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats - so far without success. This year more than 3,500 people reached British shores this way.

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